Challenging Fate
by britt299919
Summary: Alex is settling in at his new school. Or at least trying to. It isn't going well. An invitation to join his school's academic decathlon team may be the answer to his problems. Unfortunately, one of his team mates is hiding a dangerous secret of his own. Can Alex protect his classmate? Or is history destined to repeat itself? Sequel to Beating the Odds.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I NEVER INTENDED TO DO A SEQUEL TO THIS STORY, BUT HERE WE ARE!**

**So. The reason I'm writing this is because I have done some introspection recently and came to the startling realization that I have been incredibly unfair to Spiderman. Like, I've just never really liked his character, and I don't really have a reason? I mean, I was raised on DC, so that's a part of it, but I like other Marvel characters, so why not Spiderman?**

**Anyway, once I realized that Spiderman was actually a really cool character, the idea for this story hit me like a train. Which is honestly a terrible idea. I already have three incomplete stories that I'm writing right now, I shouldn't start another one. But here I am. A couple of people in reviews said they would like it if Alex and Spiderman met, so thanks to you guys for giving me this idea! :)**

**This is basically going to be Civil War without there being a civil war. Civil War just made me so sad. I want them to be friends! Also, I don't want to pick sides. I mean, I have a personal opinion, but I can see where both sides are coming from, and both have reasonable reasons for acting the way they do. So I'm just going to avoid the whole issue! Yay!**

**Wow. Longest author's note I have ever done. Sorry guys! I hope you like the story! (Also, most of my knowledge of marvel characters comes from the MCU, so my Spiderman is going to be based off of the Tom Holland one.)**

**I don't own Alex Rider or the Avengers. I cannot come up with a joke so…. Eh. Most you probably don't even read the author's notes. **

* * *

Alex stared out the window and tried to resist the urge to tap his pencil on his desk. This was torture. And considering he had actually been tortured in the past, that was saying something.

A sudden screech made Alex flinch. He relaxed when he saw it was just a student standing up to turn in their test. Their chair had made the sound when the student pushed it back. The sound hadn't even been that loud, but to Alex it was like a gun going off in the quiet of the classroom.

Alex took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Tests were the worst. At least when the teacher was talking he had something to focus on. But with testing going on, Alex had to sit still in relative silence for hours. It was awful.

Alex glanced down at his own test. He had finished it more than forty minutes ago, but he hadn't turned it in yet. He considered going through it for mistakes, but he had already done that three times. He should just get up and turn it in, but he was reluctant to do that.

_It's fine, _Alex thought harshly. _You knew the answer to every question on that test. Just turn it in, you know you'll get a one hundred._

_But what if you don't? _A quiet voice whispered in the back of his mind. _What if you got a question wrong? What if you __**failed?**_ _You know the consequences for failing._

Alex grit his teeth hard, shoving the voice down violently. That wasn't true anymore. There wouldn't be any consequences if he failed. At least, none like… like…

A sharp snap jerked Alex out of his thoughts. He looked around frantically, trying to locate the source of the sound. It wasn't until he noticed his peers looking at him strangely that he realized the sound had come from himself. He had gripped his pencil so hard it snapped in half.

Alex dropped the remains of his pencil. He grabbed his test and stood up, walking to the front and turning it in before he could second guess himself.

Alex spent the rest of class studiously ignoring everyone else in the room. Or at least, ignoring them as well as he was able. The urge to keep track of exactly where everyone was was too strong for him to completely resist.

By the end class, Alex had a headache. Everytime time someone moved, coughed, tapped their foot, _anything_, Alex's mind went into overdrive. It was stupid. _It was stupid. _These were ordinary high school students. None of them were going to suddenly pull a gun or reveal themselves as some kind of foreign agent. Yet no matter how many times Alex told himself that, his brain didn't seem to get the memo.

Still. At least this was his last class of the day. He could go home and destress for a bit.

Alex was wondering which shooting range would be open today when his teacher called his name.

"Alex? Could I speak to you for a minute?"

Alex stiffened. What was going on? Had he done something wrong? Was he going to be punished? He approached Mr. Harrington's desk, looking composed on the outside, but panicking internally.

"Yes, sir?" He asked quietly, looking down and refusing to make eye contact.

"I just want to say that you are under no obligation to say yes. I know that you've had a hard time recently, and I don't want to cause you any stress."

Alex's eyes darted up, the only outward sign of his confusion. When Alex didn't say anything, Mr. Harrington continued.

"I would like it if you joined the academic decathlon team."

Alex blinked. He honestly wasn't expecting that.

"You're obviously a really bright kid, and I think you would be a great asset to the team. Plus, you've been going to school here for almost a month, and I haven't seen you speak to any of your peers, not even once. This could be an easy way for you to make some friends."

Alex's frozen expression broke at that. It didn't change by much, but there was a definite downturn to his mouth. He wasn't interested in making friends. He already had one, and that was enough for him.

Apparently Mr. Harrington could tell what Alex was thinking, and he sighed.

"Like I said, you don't have to say yes. Just thought I'd put it out there. But at least check it out. We have practice tomorrow after school in room B113. Come to practice. If you hate it, you never have to come back."

"... I'll think about it." Alex finally said. Mr. Harrington nodded.

"That's all I can ask for."

Alex took that as a dismissal and left the room. He considered dropping his textbooks off in his locker, but ditched that idea in favor of getting out of the school as quickly as possible. It's not like the weight of the books was difficult for him to carry or anything.

Exiting the school was like taking a breath of fresh air after being trapped in an underground cave for three days. Not that Alex would have any idea what that was like. Nope, he was just a normal, average civilian, doing normal, average civilian things. Yeah…

Alex shook his head, heading off into the city. New York wasn't London, but he had adapted to it pretty quickly. He had even developed a certain fondness for the city, one that offset his homesickness at least a little bit. Alex missed London desperately, but he would rather die than ever set foot there again.

A news broadcast on a nearby television display caught his attention. A grainy video of the 'Spiderman' was playing repeatedly while news anchors discussed the new hero that was making waves. Alex raised an eyebrow at the obviously homemade costume the hero was wearing. Whoever Spiderman was, he clearly didn't have the resources that the Avengers did.

Well, it was none of his business anyway. As long as Spiderman didn't attack him or any of the Avengers, he could do what he liked. The actions of a small time vigilante had nothing to do with him.

With that, Alex continued on his way home, unaware of how those thoughts would come back to haunt him.

* * *

Clint looked up when Jarvis announced Alex's arrival. He was the only one waiting for the teen today. The others were at a meeting with Secretary Ross. Technically, Clint was supposed to be there too, but the team had made it clear that someone had to be waiting for Alex. No matter what was happening, the Avengers always made sure that at least one of them was there waiting when Alex got home.

Alex insisted that it wasn't necessary, and maybe it wasn't. But Clint saw the way Alex's eye lit up a bit when he came home to see someone waiting, and that made him willing to do anything to keep from disappointing the kid. Alex had suffered so much because of his terrible guardians. This was the least they could do for him.

"Hey kid. How was school?"

"Torture." Alex's voice was completely deadpan, causing Clint to grimace.

"That bad?" He asked sympathetically. Alex only groaned in response, face planting onto the couch. Clint sighed, his heart aching for the kid.

Alex did not do well in school. That didn't mean he had poor grades. His grades were steller. Clint had never seen him bring home anything below a one hundred. But that was besides the point. They all knew that Alex was smart, that was never in question. Alex wasn't going to school to learn, he was going to try and reintegrate with society.

That… had not gone as well as the Avengers might have hoped. Alex hadn't connected with anyone at the school. He went through the motions, barely keeping himself together for a full school day before returning straight to the Tower to try and calm down before he was forced to do it all over again. Alex hadn't even been going to school for a full month, and already he was near his breaking point. If something didn't change soon, Alex probably wouldn't make it through the rest of the school year.

"Anything exciting happen?" Clint asked, trying to pull Alex out of his slump. He asked this every day, and Alex usually looked at him as if he were insane, but today he looked a bit thoughtful. He flipped over and sat up on the couch, crossing his legs in a pattern that cut off Clint's circulation just looking at it.

"Well… Mr. Harrington asked me to join the academic decathlon team. Does that count as exciting?"

Clint masked his surprise, pretending to consider Alex's question. Inside, his thoughts were racing. Could this be it? Could this be the thing that would finally break through Alex's defences? Or would it be the final straw that drove him away from school and any chance at a normal life for good?

"That depends…" Clint said after a moment of silence. "Are you going to take him up on his offer?"

Clint had expected Alex to immediately say no, so he was surprised when Alex shrugged.

"I mean… I don't really want to. But, he mentioned the fact that I never really talk to anyone and… well he kinda had a point. I'm supposed to be fitting in with my peers, but I'm not even trying."

Alex looked away from Clint obviously, ashamed. His voice was small when he continued.

"It's like I don't want to get better."

"Hey. None of that." Clint perched next to Alex on the couch, poking him in the forehead. Alex looked up at him with wide eyes.

"You are trying. I know how hard it is for you to go to school, and the fact that you do it anyway is a testament to how much you want to get better. If you want to give this whole ac dec thing a try, I say go for it. If not, that's fine too. Whatever you're comfortable with."

Alex blinked up at Clint. His eyes narrowed a bit as he scrutinized the man. Clint let it happen. He knew that Alex was studying him for sincerity. The kid still had a hard time believing he could make his own decisions about his life.

"There's a practice tomorrow." Alex broke eye contact, pulling out a knife and fiddling with it. "Mr. Harrington said if I didn't like it, I didn't have to come back."

"Sounds like Mr. Harrington is a pretty nice guy."

Alex shrugged one shoulder, not looking up. Clint decided to count that as a win and stood up.

"Want to head down to the range? We got some new exploding arrows that I know you would love."

Alex brightened at the change in subject. He nodded, unfolding his legs and standing up. Clint half expected the kid to topple over, but apparently Alex had extremely good circulation, which honestly wasn't that surprising. He was able to walk just fine as they left the living room.

"By the way, where is everyone else?" Alex asked as they headed down to the shooting range. Clint smirked.

"Oh they're stuck in a meeting with Ross. I used you as an excuse to get out of it. I've never liked the guy. He seems slimy"

"Ross?" Alex looked slightly concerned. "Isn't he working with the UN these days? What business does he have with the Avengers?"

Clint shrugged, unbothered. "Who knows? I doubt it's anything important."

Unfortunately, Clint would soon learn that those words could not be further from the truth.

* * *

**AN: Fun fact! I was on my school's academic decathlon team my senior year of high school. We even went to state, but not nationals sadly.**

**Don't worry! Peter will be in the next chapter! I am looking forward to this! Oh, and if any of you have some kinda spidey villain you want in story, let me know. I have a plan, but I lack a main villain and my lack of marvel knowledge is really showing. **

**Bye for now!**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Well looky here! I'm updating this story again instead of working on my other ones! Clearly I am a master of time management and priorities. **

**I don't own Alex Rider or the Avengers. I don't even have a car.**

* * *

"Dude! Did you see the news yesterday? Spiderman was in action right around where you live! Isn't that crazy? I mean, you could have actually seen him in person."

Peter smiled nervously at Ned's excited words. This was why he tried to avoid working in his neighborhood. He really didn't want anyone connecting Spiderman with his home. Still, when he had spotted a couple getting mugged on his way home, he couldn't just leave. He hadn't known that someone was filming him.

"Y-yeah, that's pretty nuts." He mumbled, looking away and rubbing the back of his neck. Luckily, Mr. Harrington walked into the room at that moment, a vaguely familiar kid trailing behind him.

"Okay everyone. Before we begin, I want to introduce Alex. He's considering joining the team, so be nice, alright?"

Peter looked Alex over. After a moment, he finally realized where he knew him. Alex was in his chemistry class, but they had never really interacted. In fact, Peter was pretty sure he had never even heard him speak before. Peter frowned to himself. It was a bit odd that he didn't know anything about Alex. This school was pretty small, so most everyone knew everyone. Alex must have been new this year, but you'd think someone would have become friends with him by this point, or at least talked to him. But no matter how much he wracked his memory, Peter could not think of one person ever even mentioning Alex. Not even to spread rumors about him. It was definitely strange. Still, if Mr. Harrington wanted him on the team, than he was probably pretty smart.

Peter studied Alex closely, trying to see if he could figure him out. He seemed unassuming enough. He was a bit short, but clearly very fit. Peter was pretty sure that most girls would call him handsome, with his blond hair and brown eyes, but the longer he looked, the more uneasy he felt. Alex seemed to sense his stare because he turned and looked him right in the eye.

Peter bit back a gasp as he locked eyes with Alex. His eyes were cold, almost empty. He felt a tingling in the back of his mind, almost like his spidey sense, but not quite. Peter broke eye contact, hunching in on himself. Whoever Alex was, he was dangerous.

"Really? You want pretty boy on the team? Why? He looks like a stereotypical jock. He's probably as dumb as a box of rocks."

Peter resisted the urge to slam his head on his desk. Clearly Flash was not quite as intuitive when it came to sniffing out danger. Though that was already apparent in the way he kept picking fights with Peter.

Alex raised an eyebrow at Flash's words. It shouldn't have been an intimidating expression, but Peter still felt chills going down his spine.

"Well Mr. Harrington, I can see why you want me on the team if this is the talent you're working with."

Peter blinked, a bit taken aback by Alex's obvious accent. How could he not have known that they had a kid from the UK in their school? That seemed like the kind of thing that everyone would get really excited about. Ned reacted before anyone else could say what they were all thinking.

"Whoa! You're british?"

Alex stared at Ned blankly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said in a perfect American accent.

"Alright, enough." Mr. Harrington interrupted. "Let's start practice. You guys can get to know each other afterwards. Alex, you can just observe for today, get a feel for how things work, alright?"

Alex nodded, walking to the back of the room and sitting down. Peter shot him one last anxious look before focussing on Mr. Harrington. They had a real shot at winning nationals this year, and he didn't want to be a weak link in their team.

Practice went by as normal. Alex was so quiet it was easy to forget he was there. Everytime Peter caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of his way, he always had to fight the urge to flinch as his spidey sense reared up again. It was nerve wracking.

Finally practice was over, and the team swarmed Alex. Mr. Harrington looked like he was going to protest before giving up. He sat down and pulled some paperwork out of his briefcase, leaving the students to their devices. They eagerly gathered around Alex, curious about this potential new member. Peter hung toward the back of the group, still uncertain about the kid.

"So. You think you're good enough to be on the team?" Flash had an almost impressive amount of swagger for someone as small as he was. Of course, Alex was still shorter than Flash, so this may be the one time his blustering may actually work in the way he intended.

Or at least, it would if Flash was trying it on anyone other than Alex. Alex looked severally unimpressed by Flash's grandstanding.

"I'm only going to say this once." Alex's voice was flat, devoid of any accent that Peter could make out. "You don't scare me. Nothing you say matters to me at all. I don't care about you, or whatever delusions of grandeur you have, so do us both a favor and don't ever talk to me again."

Flash gaped at Alex. His face turned bright red and he started sputtering.

"I- you don't- how _dare_-"

"Whatever."

Alex shoved past Flash, grabbing his backpack and heading toward the door. Flash looked almost comically furious. He stared at Alex's retreating back for a second before storming after him.

"You wait just a minute-"

What happened next happened too fast for even Peter to keep track of. One moment Flash was yelling at Alex, the next was on the ground, cradling a bloody nose. Mr. Harrington looked up from his paperwork when he heard Flash's yell of pain and sighed when he took in the scene.

"What happened here?"

"He tripped sir." Alex said calmly, his face completely neutral. Mr. Harrington sighed again, rubbing his forehead.

"I know that's not true, but I also know that Flash can be a bit… much, so I'll let it go this time. But this is the last time Alex. You can't do things like this at school."

Alex dipped his head in acknowledgement. To everyone else, he still looked blank, emotionless, but Peter felt a slight change. The danger that had been coming off of Alex this whole time receded. Peter caught a glimpse of Alex's face as he left the room and he looked almost… ashamed.

When Alex was gone, Mr. Harrington stood up. He helped Flash to his feet and looked him over.

"It's not broken. You'll be fine."

"Aren't you going to punish him?" Flash half asked, half whined. "He attacked me!"

Mr. Harrington looked uncomfortable. He ran a hand through his hair, looking down at the ground.

"Alex is… a special case. I'm really not supposed to tell you this, but I suppose it's only fair if I'm going to ask you to spend so much time in close proximity to him. I can't tell you much because I don't _know _much, but Alex has been through some difficult times, and well, they've left their mark on him. We were warned that he could be dangerous when provoked, but I kind of assumed that they were exaggerating. I guess not."

"If he's dangerous, than why is he allowed in the school?" Abe asked, nervous energy radiating off of him. "And why did you ask him to join the team?"

Mr. Harrington was silent for a long moment. "Because no matter his problems, Alex is a good kid who deserves a chance."

Their teacher sighed yet again. He looked tired.

"Look, if it makes you that uncomfortable, I'll tell him he can't join the team. Attacking Flash is a pretty good excuse for being banned from extra-curricular activities."

Peter's first instinct was to say yes, please ban him. There was something about Alex that just made his skin crawl, and he didn't want to have to deal with that the whole year.

But before he could say that, Alex's face flashed in his mind. In that final moment, he had seemed so… sad. Lonely even. He was reminded that no one knew anything about Alex. Clearly he didn't have any friends at the school, and now the first people he had tried to reach out to were about to ban him.

"No." Peter found himself saying. "Don't do that. Let him join the team if he wants to."

Everyone else gaped at Peter. He didn't blame them. He had shocked himself.

"Dude." Ned hissed. "Do you really want the psychopath on our team?"

"Don't call him that." Michelle snapped, entering into the conversation for the first time. "I agree with Peter. We should give Alex a chance. Afterall, it's not like we haven't all wanted to punch Flash in the face before."

"Hey!" Flash yelled, but everyone else looked like they agreed.

Ned looked between Peter and Michelle before groaning.

"Fine, I'm in too. If nothing else, I want to figure out what his nationality actually is."

Slowly, the rest of the team agreed to give Alex a chance. The only one who refused was, rather predictably, Flash, but he was out voted. Mr. Harrington looked almost proud of them as they made their decision.

"Ok. I'll let Alex know the offer is still open. In the meantime, the rest of you should head home. It's getting late."

The team slowly dispersed, discussing the unusually exciting practice. Peter said goodbye to Ned before beginning his walk home. He turned down an alley that was a convenient shortcut. He was halfway through when someone called his name.

He turned around to see Alex standing behind him. This time he couldn't restrain his flinch. The unease he had felt in the classroom was multiplied by ten when he was alone with Alex.

Alex clearly noticed the flinch if his frown was anything to go by. He backed up a couple steps and Peter felt himself relax.

"Uh, hey Alex. What can I do for you?" Peter tried to sound calm, but his voice shook a bit too much to be convincing.

Alex seemed to deflate.

"You're afraid of me." It wasn't a question, but Peter responded anyway.

"No I'm not! I mean, it was just… you startled me, and I…"

Peter trailed off as Alex gave him an unconvinced look. He looked away, feeling ashamed.

"Okay, maybe I am. But that's not your fault."

"Yes it is." Alex said softly. "I know how I come off to people. I am very unapproachable. And then there was the thing with Flash."

Alex rubbed his arm, looking upset. It was the first real emotion Peter had seen on Alex's face.

"I shouldn't have done it." He muttered. "I know better. But school is just so… stressful, and I heard someone running at me and I panicked. It was instinct."

Peter felt sick. What kind of life did a person have to live to have that kind of instinct built into them? If he were being honest with himself, he didn't really want to know.

"I could pretend." Alex said suddenly. "I could smile and chat and pretend to be a normal high school student, and no one would know the difference. But… it's just so exhausting to constantly pretend to be something you're not. And to be honest, I don't want to pretend anymore. I've spent my whole life pretending, and I'm sick of it. But who I really am… I don't really like that person either. And even if I did, no one else would. So I lose either way."

Peter swallowed. He knew exactly what Alex was talking about. That feeling of being different, of having to hide yourself just to fit in, Peter understood that. Ever since he had been bitten by that spider, he had felt out of place amongst his peers. He longed to tell Alex that he understood, to try and help him, but he couldn't risk exposing his secret.

"Why are you telling me this?" He asked instead, trying and failing to push down his guilt.

Alex glanced at him before looking away.

"I… didn't actually leave after I left the room. I listened at the door."

"Oh." Peter said quietly, feeling mortified. Did he hear Ned call him a psychopath? Would he even want to join the team knowing how scared everyone was of him?

"You stood up for me." Alex's voice broke Peter out of his spiral. He looked at Alex blankly, trying to register his words. Alex smirked a bit at the dumb look on his face, but kept talking regardless.

"Even though you're scared of me, you still stood up for me. You were the first one to say that you were okay with me being on the team."

Alex tilted his head to the side, an oddly cute look on him. "Why did you do that?"

Peter opened and closed his mouth a few times, struggling to find a response to the question. He didn't really know why he had done it. It was just that…

"You looked lonely."

Alex's eyes widened a bit before he looked away. He seemed deep in thought. Peter waited to see if he would say something in response, but the silence just dragged out. Finally Peter decided to ask a question of his own.

"Are you going to join the team?"

Alex looked up at him, his face wiped clean of all emotion once more. Peter felt his skin crawl under Alex's intense look. It was like he could see into his soul. Still, he stayed still and waited for an answer.

After a long moment, Alex smiled. It wasn't exactly a cheerful smile, but it wasn't a smirk either. Peter wasn't really sure what emotion it was supposed to convey, but at least it broke the tense atmosphere. He found himself returning the smile, albeit a tad hesitantly.

Alex's smile widened, becoming a bit more cheerful.

"You know what? I think I will."

* * *

**AN: Yay! Friends!**

**There isn't going to be any romance in this, so don't be asking for Alex and Peter to become a couple. Alex is not emotionally ready for any kind of relationship. And Peter loves Liz. Not that I'm going to do anything with that. Liz is not going to be an important character in this story.**

**In case you were wondering why Alex is so short, I established in the last story that he was small for his age, looking more like a 12 year old than 14. It was later revealed that he's so small because his uncle regularly starved him when he was growing up as punishment for various 'failures.' Still, it's been a while, and neither of those things were very big parts of the story, so you may have forgotten, so I just thought I'd remind you all!**

**Anyway, see you all later! Bye!**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Wow! Updating this one again! What is even happening?**

**Seriously though, what is even happening? I mean, part of it is that I'm very bored right now and I've beat every video game in my house multiple times, so that's not really an option for me at the moment. Also, I have like three channels I watch on YouTube and I've seen all of their videos like five times each at this point. **

**The moral of the story is, when in doubt, write fanfic! Or I guess I could clean… nah fanfic is the better option for sure.**

**I don't own Alex Rider or the Avengers. Or Spiderman. Just thought I'd throw that in there.**

* * *

Living with the Avengers had certain perks, Clint mused as he flipped through the papers in front of him. For example, he had very quickly learned how to tune out arguing voices upon moving into the Tower. A skill that was coming in handy right now.

"Are you saying we should allowed to do whatever we want with no consequences?" Tony yelled, flinging his arms around dramatically. Steve rolled his eyes.

"Of course not. But I don't think that this document is the answer. I mean, have you read it? Did you see the part about 'indefinite imprisonment without trial?' In what universe can you consider that a good idea?"

Tony deflated a bit. "Okay, so it could use some amendments. Still, I think it's a step in the right direction."

Clint wasn't really listening, but it was pretty obvious what they were arguing about. Apparently that meeting with Ross had been a bit more important than Clint had anticipated. Ross told them about the Sokovia Accords, a document designed to reign in the influence of so called 'enhanced humans.' Which was obviously complete nonsense since it included people like Tony, or you know, himself. Clint snorted. Yeah, the ability to shoot a bow really well definitely counted as an 'enhancement.'

Well, he wasn't going to let it bother him. Sure, some of the stuff in there was a bit sketchy, but he had worked for SHIELD for years. He'd always known he'd end up in some dark pit if he went rogue, so this was nothing new.

He was about to excuse himself from the conversation when something caught his eye. He frowned as he read the line again. At first glance, it didn't seem like much, but if he was reading it correctly…

Clint had to fight back a snarl. So that was how they were going to play it. Well if they were going to play dirty, than so would be. That powers that be were in for a nasty surprise.

"Personally, I think anything coming from a council who was going to nuke New York City is absolute bull." Clint offered, cutting off the argument and tossing the document on the table in front of him. "Regardless, that is all besides the point."

"What are you talking about?" Bruce asked, exchanging a look with Tony. "I feel like these are all pretty important things to discuss."

"Well, sure," Clint acknowledged, "but we have a bigger problem if the accords go through."

The rest of the team stared at him blankly. Clint rolled his eyes, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Alex."

The entire team stiffened. They turned to look at Natasha, whose face was dark. When she saw she had everyone's attention, she continued.

"If the accords get passed, the UN gets direct control of Alex."

There was a moment of silence before the Avengers erupted.

"That can't be true," Bruce protested, "I mean, Alex isn't a combatant. He's not even enhanced in any way. The accords wouldn't apply to him." Meanwhile, Steve and Tony were wrestling with the sole copy of the accords they had at the moment while it sounded like Thor was… breaking things?

"Calm down!" Natasha yelled, and the pandemonium faded. She glared at the various men, and they squirmed. Clint thought it was kinda funny, but figured he should probably intervene.

"Allow me to explain since you lot clearly don't understand the finer aspects of the legal language." he drawled. Tony looked a bit offended by that, but Clint continued before the tech genius could say anything.

"The accords are split into three main parts." Clint held up three fingers, lowering one each time he listed a section. "The first regards enhanced humans who don't want to use their abilities in combat. The second is for ones who do. And the last one specifically addresses the Avengers."

Clint lowered his hand and plastered an obviously fake smile on his face. "Now, there is quite a bit of interesting, ie, morally questionable, stuff in the first two sections, but we'll leave that for another day and focus on part three for the moment."

"The one that involves the Avengers." Thor said cautiously. Clint shot him a thumbs up and a cheesy grin.

"Bingo! Got it in one big buddy! Now, there's a whole lot going on in section three, but the basic gist is that the Avengers would basically work for the UN using SHIELD as a kind of liaison."

"Isn't… that what we already do?" Bruce asked hesitantly. Tony snorted.

"They wish. Fury is constantly pissing the council off. He's been doing it for years. It's not surprising they're going over his head this time. Under the accords, if Fury decides to ignore a direct order in regards to the Avengers, than can actually do something about it."

Clint clapped sarcastically. "What do you know? Turns out the tin can isn't an idiot afterall!"

Tony shot Clint a dirty look. "I've run a multi-billion dollar company for years, of course I know how to read a legal document. What I don't understand is how any of this relates to Alex. He isn't a member of the Avengers, so everything else is null and void."

"Bzzt!" Clint made an X with his fingers. "Incorrect! And he was doing such a good job!"

"Cut the crap Barton," Natasha snapped. "Either be helpful, or get out."

Clint let his cheerful mask fall, letting his anger show on his face. The rest of team all drew back a bit at the sudden, violent anger painted all over Clint's features.

"Fine." he growled at Nat before turning back to Tony. "You're right Stark. None of that would apply to Alex if it weren't for one tiny clause stuck onto the end of part three. Allow me to read it to you."

Clint snagged the accords off of the table and flipped to the page he had noted earlier. He cleared his throat loudly before reading.

"The preceding conditions apply to all members and associates of the Avengers, both past and present."

Finished, Clint tossed the document back onto the table. Seeing blank looks on certain team mates' faces, he sighed.

"Okay, so the key word there was 'associate.' It was defined earlier as anyone who had a working relationship with a group, even if they weren't technically a member of that group."

"But Alex doesn't have a working relationship with us!" Steve protested. "He's a kid! We've never taken him into combat with us."

"Yes we have." Tony said, horror dawning on his face. "He fought with Natasha and Clint when they were all kidnapped. Oh god, and the Doom situation. There is footage of him with us in the aftermath of that fight! He got treated for an injury he received."

"But… that's in the past." Bruce said weakly. "Surely they won't be able to…"

Tony shook his head grimmly. "Past or present. That's what it says. Alex qualifies. Clint and Natasha were right. The UN could use the accords to force Alex to work for them."

"But he'd a kid!" Steve said desperately. Clint laughed bitterly.

"Ain't no age limit in the accords!" He said with a mad grin. "Come one, come all, if your useful, we'll abuse you, equal opportunity screwing over here at the UN!"

The whole team fell silent. The previous argument was completely forgotten. Suddenly they didn't really care about the fine line between freedom to act and taking responsibility for those acts. All that mattered was that Alex was in danger, and because of that, the Sokovia Accords were going down.

"I'll get my lawyers on it immediately." Tony broke the silence, standing up and pulling out his phone. "It helps that Thor is an alien. They'll be able to argue forever over areas of jurisdiction and whether we can claim authority over someone who isn't a citizen of any nation in the UN. That will buy us some time to find a more permanent solution."

"Before you go, we all need to agree on one thing."

Tony stopped in the doorway, glancing over at Nat curiously. Clint's brow furrowed. He wasn't entirely sure where she was going with this.

Natasha took a deep breath.

"We don't tell Alex about this."

Clint immediately opened his mouth to argue, but Natasha cut him off with a glare.

"No. We can't tell him. He's just starting to settle into school. If we tell him, it will ruin everything. His paranoia will skyrocket, and that is the last thing we need when he's finally starting to trust people again."

"Funny you're talking about trust when you're conspiring to break his." Clint spat, cold fury in his voice. Nat winced.

"I know it's not perfect. And we will tell him, but only when we have a plan."

"What if we don't find a plan?" Steve challenged. "What if the accords go through?"

Natasha didn't back down.

"Then we'll all have to face it together."

* * *

Alex tapped at his phone. To anyone else, he looked like a normal teenager, messing around on his phone and texting his friends. Alex smirked a bit at the thought. If only they knew what he was really doing.

Alex's smile faded as he remembered why he was doing this. The Avengers were hiding something from him. He had noticed it immediately when he'd come home from school two weeks ago. They tried to act normally, but Alex could sense the tension in the air, the unspoken words that were floating past his head. It was almost insulting that they thought he wouldn't notice.

He'd immediately started snooping, pulling out all the stops. He had heard quite a few interesting conversations over the past couple of weeks, but nothing so serious the Avengers would all band together to keep it hidden from him. Apparently they had decided to just not talk about it whenever he was in the Tower, which was honestly a good policy when it came to keeping secrets from Alex.

Still, Alex hadn't survived as long as he had by being a one trick pony. When eavesdropping failed, he jumped over to the next best thing: hacking. He had been working his way through Jarvis' systems over the past few days. Normally he could have done it much faster, but he had to be incredibly careful. One mistake, and Jarvis would instantly know what he was doing.

Alex grinned as he hit a particularly well guarded section. Well if this didn't just scream 'secret information.' He got to work breaking through the firewalls. He was nearly there when a sudden voice broke his concentration.

"Hi Alex!"

Alex flinched hard, jerking his head up to find who had spoken. That was the downside to hacking. It often required so much concentration he lost track of the outside world. Which was a bad thing when he was sitting in the middle of the cafeteria during lunch trying to break into one of the most secure systems in the world.

Still, once Alex saw who it was, he couldn't help but relax a bit. Peter Parker was standing in front of him, looking a bit sheepish. Knowing him, he probably felt bad for startling Alex.

"Ah. Hey Peter. I didn't see you there."

Peter was probably the closest thing Alex had to a friend at his school. They saw each other every day at ac dec practice, and they'd started to get to know each other. In the most superficial of ways. Alex of course didn't talk about things like his past or his family, but he had noticed that Peter had similar story gaps. He could almost see the areas where he was withholding information.

It was definitely strange. Alex may not be a normal teenager, but he knew how they acted. Everyone had secrets, but very few people had a Secret. Alex did, and he would bet a not insignificant amount of money that Peter did too. A part of Alex wanted to figure out what Peter's Secret was, but he shoved that part down. He wasn't a spy anymore. He didn't need to know everything about everyone.

_But you want to._

Alex ignored the whisper in the back of his mind and smiled at a nervous Peter. "Did you need something?"

"Uh, not really." Peter said, tugging on his backpack strap. "It's just, I noticed that you always eat lunch alone, and I wanted to let you know that you're always welcome to sit with me and Ned. If you want."

Alex stared at Peter in shock. He was… inviting him to eat lunch with him? Why would he do that? Sure, they were friendly enough, but it wasn't like they actually knew each other that well. And Ned was terrified of him! Well, so was Peter, but Ned actually showed it. There was no way he would want Alex around during his free time.

Peter got more and more nervous the longer Alex stared at him.

"You don't have to!" he said hurriedly, afraid he'd crossed some kind of line. "Just thought I'd offer."

Alex opened his mouth, not sure what he was going to say, when his phone beeped. He glanced down and was alarmed to see that he was dangerously close to tripping one of Jarvis' many traps. He quickly tapped his phone, momentarily pausing his program. He glanced back up at Peter.

"I'll think about it." He said without really thinking about what he was saying. Peter smiled nervously, shooting him an awkwards thumbs up.

"Okay! Great! I'll just… let you get back to whatever you were doing then."

Alex nodded distractedly, looking back at his phone. Peter stood there for a moment before heading back to his table.

Alex was about to start up his program again when the reality of the conversation suddenly hit home for him. He looked up and called out to Peter, who was only a few feet away.

"Hey Peter!"

Peter spun, pointing at himself questioningly. Alex couldn't help but smile at that.

"I… can't say for sure that I'll join you but… I really appreciate the offer."

Peter relaxed, a real smile growing on his face.

"And I really meant it. You are always welcome."

Now it was Alex's turn to be awkward. He blinked, looking away and tugging on his ear. Peter took that as his cue to leave, shooting Alex a small little wave over his shoulder. Alex found himself staring after him as he walked across the cafeteria.

_I don't care if he has a Secret. _He thought fondly to himself. _Peter is one of the nicest people I have ever met._

His phone beeped again, pulling his mind away from his sort of friend and back to whatever secrets the Avengers were keeping. Alex latched onto the distraction, plowing his way through Jarvis' protections. He finally broke through just as the bell signalling the end of lunch rang.

Students began to pack up their stuff and head for the door. Alex knew that his discovery would have to wait for later, but he quickly read the title of the folder he had unlocked before he shoved his phone back into his pocket and headed to class.

Through the rest of the day, the words he had read swam through his head.

_The Sokovia Accords._

* * *

**AN: Fun fact: An academic decathlon team meeting after school to practice every single day is indeed a thing that happens. Speaking from experience here.**

**Yup. In this universe, the Avengers learn about the accords before they are actually passed into law. So they have a chance to stop them.**

**Also ARGH! All the interactions between Alex and Peter make it seem like they're flirting. That is not my intention! They are just both socially awkward! In different ways for sure, but still. No romance! I don't write romance! I have no experience in romance! That's honestly really sad. I'm twenty and I've never been on a date. Ugh…**

**Welp, that got really pathetic toward the end there! I'm just gonna go now! Bye guys! XD**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Man. This week has been exciting. In the past oh… about ten days, all of these things happened: my mom had emergency brain surgery, my little sister had prom, I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed, and my little sister had her dance recital. Oh, and there was also a tornado warning somewhere in there. Fun. **

**Anyway, I'm recovering, my mom is recovering, so it is time to get writing! Hope you guys like the new chapter!**

**I don't own Alex Rider or the Avengers. Shrug.**

* * *

Alex stared down at his desk, not really seeing it. His mind was a mess. He had been so determined to find out what the Avengers had been hiding, but now that he actually knew…

Alex rubbed his eyes, trying to get his vision to clear. He had stayed up most of the night reading and re-reading the accords, desperate to learn everything he could about the document. He was definitely feeling the late night now. His eyes burned with the effort of keeping them open. He had been fine during school; afterall, it wasn't like this was the first time he had ever pulled an all nighter. But now he was stuck in ac dec practice, and it just seemed to be dragging on forever.

Thoughts flew through his mind, crashing together in waves of confusion. Alex wasn't sure how he felt. He was mad. Definitely mad. The Avengers should have told him. They should have let him known. He was tired. Not the kind of tired that came from staying up to late. The kind where you were just sick and tired of trying all the time just for everything to keep on falling apart. He was frustrated. They just couldn't let him go, could they? They had to keep on interfering, dragging him back into a life he had thought he'd left behind. He was… he was…

He was scared. He was terrified. Alex hadn't really thought about it before, but he _liked _this life. He liked going to school. He liked waking up and not having to run a mile before he could eat breakfast. He liked being able to talk to people without being scared. He just… he liked it. Sure, things weren't perfect, but they were so much better. He didn't want to go back to how he had lived before. He didn't want to fight anymore.

A blur of movement outside the window caused Alex to flinch. He turned to look, but it was just a squirrel. Despite this, Alex couldn't calm his heart rate. His normal paranoia had been ratcheted up to level eleven. Even though the accords hadn't even been passed yet, he was still convinced that agents were going to suddenly storm the room and drag him off to some god forsaken corner of the world in the name of Queen and country. Was this why the Avengers had hid it from him? To stop him from feeling like this? If that were the case, than he couldn't really blame them for their decision.

What time was it? Alex wanted to go home. To the Tower. Just… away. He wanted to feel safe. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt safe, but he wanted it. Why was this happening? Why couldn't they just leave him alone? Why-

"Alex!"

Alex flinched so violently he fell out of his chair. His arms came up automatically, shielding himself from a blow that never came.

When Alex's mind caught up to his body, he opened his eyes. The whole team was staring at him in shock. Ned looked like he was about to keel over. He was standing next to Alex's desk, one hand still in the air.

"I… uh, it's your turn to answer?" Ned said nervously, his voice trailing off to leave a tense silence in the room.

Alex was mortified. He felt his skin crawl as everyone stared at him. What must they think of him? Most of the team already thought he was a freak, this would just confirm that for them.

Alex started to get up, his movements making no noticeable noise in the near silent room. If Alex were less adept at controlling his emotions, he would probably be blushing. Or maybe crying. Or anything other than just standing there with a completely blank look on his face.

For a split second, Alex's confused emotions escalated sharply before abruptly flattening out. Suddenly, he felt nothing. Why bother feeling upset? There was nothing he could do, so he might as well just give up. Afterall, it wasn't as if emotions were particularly useful in his line of work.

Just as quickly as his emotions had disappeared, they came roaring back, ten times stronger this time. Alex clasped a hand over his mouth, his breath hitching. What the hell? What was that? It was like he had turned into a machine for a second.

The eyes on him felt suffocating. He couldn't handle his classmates right now. He didn't think, he just ran, slipping past his startled classmates and leaving the room. He sprinted into the bathroom, reaching a stall just in time to completely lose control of his stomach. He heaved into the toilet until nothing else would come up, dry heaving. Despite this, he still wasn't crying. He couldn't cry. He wasn't allowed to.

Alex whined slightly, hunching in on himself. He felt a desperate scream build up in his throat, but he couldn't let it out. Words pounded through his head, lessons that had been beat into him.

_Don't draw attention to yourself. Don't cry. Don't complain. Try harder. Be better. __**Why aren't you perfect?**_

"That's not a good look on you."

Alex spun, shocked to realize that someone had managed to sneak up on him again. He blinked up at…

"Michelle?"

Michelle leaned against the bathroom stall and raised an eyebrow.

"That was my name the last time I checked."

Alex opened his mouth, but couldn't think of anything to say. Michelle's nonchalant look softened a bit, and she looked away with a sigh.

"You know," she said, shifting uncomfortably, "I'm usually a big fan of the whole 'acting aloof' thing, but showing genuine emotion every now and then isn't necessarily a bad thing."

That was the breaking point. Alex wasn't sure why, but suddenly he was sobbing. Michelle let him cry, occasionally saying something vaguely comforting, but mostly just allowing him to let it all out.

Finally Alex managed to calm down. Michelle sat down next to him in the stall, not touching him, but staying close enough that Alex didn't feel alone.

Silence fell between the two of them. Michelle seemed perfectly comfortable to sit indefinitely on the floor of the boys bathroom. Alex wasn't really sure what to do. He had never fallen apart in front of someone who didn't know about his past, and he wasn't quite sure what the proper etiquette for this type of situation was.

"So, who do I have to kill?"

_What?_

Michelle snorted. Apparently Alex had said that out loud.

"Someone clearly upset you. I need a name so I can kill whoever it was." She said all of this with a perfectly neutral face, as if it should be obvious.

Alex couldn't help but smile.

"I'm pretty sure that I can kill anyone who bothers me myself."

Michelle gave him a considering look before chuckling.

"Yeah, that checks out." She said quietly, still laughing slightly.

Alex looked away sheepishly. Right, the first time she'd met him, he had punched someone in the face. That probably made an impression. Speaking of which…

"Uh, no offense, but why are you talking to me?"

Alex winced internally. That had not come out the way he had intended.

"I mean, it's just that you've never really talked to me before." He added hurriedly. Michelle smirked.

"I don't really talk to anyone. You're not special."

"Ah. Yeah…" Alex trailed off. You'd think he would be better at this whole 'talking' thing. He was trained to be personable, to fit in, to extract information. Maybe that was the problem. He didn't have a part he was playing now. He was just… being himself. Whoever that was.

Michelle laughed at his obvious discomfort. "Relax man, I'm just teasing. And to answer your question…"

Michelle trailed off, looking thoughtful for a second.

"You were upset. Someone needed to help, and it wasn't like anyone else was going to do it."

Alex flinched. He almost didn't want to know how everyone had reacted to his sudden exit, but he had to ask.

"They… all think I'm a freak, don't they?"

"Hate to break it to you, but they already thought that." Michelle said bluntly, albeit a bit sympathetically. "Though this probably didn't help." She added, almost as an afterthought.

Alex groaned, burying his head in his knees. Great. Just great.

"This was a mistake." He muttered. "I never should have joined the team. I'll tell Mr. Harrington that I'm quitting."

"Wait, what? You can't quit the team!"

Alex looked up at Michelle in surprise. He narrowed his eyes a bit. He was suddenly angry. Why did Michelle, some girl he had never even talked to before, think she should have any say in what he did? It was none of her business.

"Why not?" he spat. "What do you care? You don't know anything about me."

Michelle was not intimidated by his sudden anger.

"Yeah, sure. Look, I know you have this whole mystery thing going on, but you've let a lot more slip than you might have realized."

Alex scowled. He highly doubted that.

Michelle raised an eyebrow, seeing the challenge on Alex's face.

"Okay. You want proof? Fine."

She shifted, turning so that she was facing Alex more directly.

"I know that you hate enclosed spaces. You always sit in the back of the room where you can see everyone and where you could escape easily if you needed to."

Alex blinked. Okay, so she was observant. Still, that didn't really mean all that much. Anyone could put that together. But then Michelle kept going.

"I know that you love soccer, but that you're afraid to play for some reason. I know that you think Abe's jokes are funny, even if you always roll your eyes at them. I know that think Star Wars is stupid, but you let Ned talk about it anyway because you know that it makes him happy."

Michelle leaned in, still not touching Alex, but definitely getting into his personal space.

"In a way, you're right. I don't know you, not really. But I do know some things about you, and those things seem to add up to a pretty okay guy, and I'd be sad to see you go."

Michelle leaned back, seemingly satisfied. After a moment, she smirked.

"Plus, you've somehow managed to convince Ned that you're Puerto Rican, and I have to respect that level of trolling."

Alex was shocked. How… how had she figured all of that out? He hadn't even noticed her watching him. And the things she said…

"Did you really mean that? That I seem… okay?"

Michelle's expression softened. She sighed.

"Another thing I know? I'm not the only one who came after you."

"What?" Alex stammered. Throw him in a battle field and he was fine. Navigating his peers? Not so much.

"Yeah." Michelle admitted. "Peter came too. I convinced him to let me handle it, but he's probably hovering anxiously outside the bathroom, debating whether or not to come in."

Alex chuckled weakly. That sounded like Peter.

"See, that's the other thing." Michelle said with a slight grin. "Our boy Peter likes you, and that's honestly a really good sign."

Alex couldn't help but agree with that, even if he privately thought Peter was a bit off when it came to him.

Michelle stood up, holding out a hand.

"So? Going to stay on the team?"

Alex considered her hand before grabbing it, pulling himself to his feet. He let go immediately, but still. He figured taking the hand was a good start.

"Yeah. I think I will."

Michelle made the most unenthusiastic jazz hands Alex had ever seen, prompting a laugh out of him. He sobered quickly, looking away in embarrassment.

"Um, thanks for coming after me. And for convincing me to stay on the team."

Michelle rolled her eyes. "Yeah, don't thank me. We need you on the team, or we'll be stuck with Flash. Plus, if you leave, I'll be the weird anti-social one again."

Alex chuckled, shaking his head.

"Well, we can't have that, now can we?"

Michelle grinned. The two left the bathroom where they were immediately ambushed by an anxious Peter who fluttered around them, asking if everything was okay.

"Relax Peter, I'm fine." Alex said, holding up his hands to stave off any unwanted touch. He was feeling better, but it was still better safe than sorry. "I just had a rough night."

"You look awful." Michelle put in helpfully, and Alex gave her a halfhearted glare.

Peter nodded thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I figured it was probably something like that. Here, I got your stuff."

Peter shoved Alex's backpack into Alex's arms. He could tell by the weight that everything was there.

"Go home." Peter said forcefully. "Get some rest. I'll tell Mr. Harrington that you're sick. He'll understand."

Alex stared at Peter and Michelle for a long moment. A strange feeling welled up in his chest. He wasn't entirely sure what it was, but it was quite similar to the feeling he got when he talked to Tom.

"Okay." He said quietly, slipping his backpack onto his shoulders. He hesitated for a moment before adding a small thanks.

The next day, both Alex and Michelle ate lunch with Ned and Peter for the first time.

* * *

**AN: Yay! Angst and fluff! A proper diet of fanfic should include equal portions of both.**

**Originally, Peter was going to be the comforter, but as I thought about it, Michelle just made way more sense. Plus, she is fun to write! I think she is going to be a bigger character than I originally planned. Yay!**

**Anywhoo, hope y'all liked it! Bye for now!**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I just did so much work for my online class guys! Let me tell you, if you are not a fan of reading, do not become a history major. I have like ten books for one class. It's kinda ridiculous. **

**But now I am rewarding myself by writing more for my stories! Yay!**

**I don't own the rights to anything. Literally nothing. I'm so poor.**

* * *

"Okay, but like, who would win in a fight, Spiderman or the Hulk?"

Alex played idly with his lunch, tuning out Ned's overly enthusiastic voice. He wasn't used to eating three full meals a day, and sometimes it was still hard for him to actually eat everything that the Avengers gave him. Still, it had become a bit easier since he had started eating lunch with Peter, Ned, and Michelle. Their voices were comforting, even if he never really joined the conversation.

"That's a dumb question. Clearly the Hulk would win." Michelle said, not looking up from her sketchbook. Ned began to argue passionately on Spiderman's behalf, though Michelle didn't seem to be paying any real attention. Alex took a bite of his sandwich, allowing Ned's voice to wash over him, lulling him into a rare sense of calm and relaxation.

A strange sense of unease pulled him from his relaxed fog. He sat up straighter, trying to figure out what had set him off. It took a few moments, but finally he realized what was bothering him.

Peter wasn't participating in the conversation.

Alex frowned slightly. Peter loved superheroes. This kind of argument was right up his alley, so for him to be so quiet…

"Are you alright Peter?" Alex asked, cutting Ned off. Peter startled, looking up at Alex with wide eyes. Alex's frown deepened. Peter was clearly nervous about something. When both Ned and Michelle turned to look at Peter as well, he slapped on an obviously fake smile.

"Me? I'm fine, totally fine, why wouldn't I be?"

"It's not like you to not participate in this kind of thing." Alex pointed out, and Michelle hummed in agreement.

"Alex is right. What's going on in your head that is more interesting than whatever Ned was talking about?"

"Sorry! I was just… thinking about my research paper. You know, it's a big part of our grade."

"Dude, you told me you finished that a week ago." Ned said, poking Peter in the side. "Come on, fess up. What were you really thinking about?"

Peter flailed a bit, stammering. He batted Ned's hand away, squirming in discomfort.

"Alright fine!" He yelled. He winced at the looks they got from other tables before lowering his voice. "I was thinking about Liz, okay?"

Ned crowed and Michelle rolled her eyes, going back to her sketchbook. Ned began teasing Peter, who covered his face in embarrassment.

Alex frowned, picking up his sandwich but keeping his eyes on Peter. Despite his apparent embarrassment, Peter looked more relieved than anything. Alex would bet anything that he was lying. He hadn't been thinking about Liz. But if he was lying, than what had he really been upset about?

Almost without conscious thought, Alex began to feel certain connections being made in his mind. Peter had always had a few odd quirks that set off Alex's 'spy sense.' Alex had never really gone to any effort to make sense of them, but that didn't mean that he hadn't been keeping track of the behavior. There was a link there, a commonality. It was right there, at the edge of his mind. If he could just figure it out…

It hit him like a bomb. Spiderman. That was the connection.

_No. _That was Alex's first thought. Peter couldn't have anything to do with Spiderman. That would be too big of a coincidence. Yet even as Alex tried to convince himself of this, the dots began to connect. Peter always looked uncomfortable when Spiderman was brought up. He had a black eye the day after Spiderman had gotten quite the beating from some sort of enhanced criminal. Alex had once spotted a strange chemical formula in Peter's notebook that, on further consideration, could have created something similar to the webs that Spiderman used.

The more Alex thought about it, the more sense it made. He glanced over at Peter, seeing him in a new light. Could it really be true..?

Alex shook his head. It didn't matter. If Peter wanted to run around acting as a vigilante, well, good luck to him. Alex had bigger things to worry about, like the-

_The Sokovia Accords._

Alex felt suddenly ill, as if someone had just punched him in the stomach. Oh no. The Sokovia Accords. He looked over at Peter again. He was laughing as Ned attempted to give him a noogie. Michelle was trying to stay neutral, but Alex could see the slight smile on her face as she watched the boys roughhouse.

Alex's stomach twisted. They looked so… _happy. _Like normal highschool students. What would happen to them if Peter got caught by some organization who would use him in horrible ways? Ned and Michelle would never know what had happened to their friend. That would haunt them forever, even if they managed to move on. And Peter. Who knew what kind of terrible people would get their hands on him. They would destroy Peter. They would force him to do terrible things. They would turn him into a monster, into…

Alex swallowed. Alex. They would turn him into Alex. He could not allow that to happen. The mere thought of Peter becoming someone like himself was… Alex's hands trembled. It could not happen.

But what could he do? He wasn't even supposed to know about the Sokovia Accords. He didn't want to get Peter involved with the Avengers. Even meeting with them could give him the 'associate' title that Alex was stuck with, and Alex didn't want Peter trapped by the whims of the UN. Still, if he did nothing, Peter would almost certainly be discovered, and that would be even worse. As Alex considered his options, he felt panic begin to overtake him.

_Calm down. _Alex told himself sternly. _You don't __**know **__that Peter is Spiderman. Confirm, then act. _

Alex nodded to himself, feeling better now that he had decided on a course of action. First, he would find out for sure whether Peter was Spiderman or not. That was the most important thing right now.

And if he was Spiderman… Alex would go from there. It would be fine.

Alex looked at his sandwich, unable to bring himself to finish it.

_It __**would **__be fine._

Alex swallowed down bile.

_Hopefully._

* * *

Peter groaned as he looked at the spot where his backpack had been. May was going to kill him.

Still grumbling, he headed toward home. He would have to call Ned and beg for copies of the homework. If he was quick, he could finish everything for tomorrow. Assuming he didn't fall asleep in the middle of working on it. Being Spiderman was tiring business.

Reaching his apartment complex, Peter climbed up to his window. He slipped inside, letting out a sigh of relief and pulling off his mask. It was really stuffy with the thing on, so it was a relief to finally be able to take it off.

"So. You're Spiderman."

Peter squeaked, spinning to see Alex sitting on his bed. Alex didn't look very shocked at the revelation. In fact, he looked almost bored.

Peter gaped at his friend, trying to find some kind of excuse that he would believe.

"I'm not!" He said urgently. Alex raised an eyebrow skeptically, and Peter continued hurriedly.

"This, this is just… a costume! Yeah, I uh, cosplay as Spiderman. It's kinda embarrassing, so I don't really talk about it… " Peter trailed off sheepishly. Alex's expression didn't change.

"A costume." Alex's voice was flat. Peter flushed.

"What are you even doing here?" He hissed, yanking off the costume and grabbing some normal clothes to wear instead. Alex remained perfectly calm.

"I found your backpack." Alex deadpanned, holding up the object. "Your aunt let me in."

"Oh." Peter paused in pulling on his shirt. He grabbed his backpack, throwing it into the corner of his room. He finished getting dressed, turning to look at Alex.

"So, you aren't actually Spiderman. You just cosplay as him." Alex said, crossing his legs and leaning on them. Peter blinked. Had Alex actually bought it?

The next second, his spidey sense was absolutely screaming at him. His hand jerked up, catching something an inch away from his face. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was a knife.

Peter shrieked, dropping the thing and scrambling backwards. Alex lowered his hand, looking a tad smug.

"But, if you aren't Spiderman, than how did you do that?"

"Knife." Peter pointed at the knife, unable to quite understand what had just happened. "That… a knife. You… you threw… knife. A knife. You threw a knife! At my face!"

Alex waved his hand dismissively.

"I knew you would catch it."

Peter gaped at Alex. Was… was he serious? He was suddenly furious.

"Are you kidding me? You can't just throw knives at people! You could seriously hurt someone!"

Alex shrugged. "Never stopped my uncle."

Peter closed his mouth abruptly. What was that supposed to mean? Before he could ask, Alex continued.

"Look, I get that you're upset, but I did know that you would catch it. I knew you were Spiderman before I even got to your house."

"How could you possibly know that?" Peter whisper-yelled. Alex gave him an unimpressed look.

"You change in broad daylight, in the middle of a public alley. Anyone could see you. I mean, I already had my suspicions when I followed you after school today, but I honestly thought it would be at least a little harder to actually confirm it."

Peter felt cold. Alex had followed him? And he hadn't even noticed? How was that possible? Peter was always aware of Alex. His spidey sense never let him forget him. Peter tried to hide his unease, but Alex clearly noticed. His flat expression softened, and he looked away.

"I didn't come here to accuse you Peter." He said softly. "And you don't have to worry. I'm not going to tell anyone. I wouldn't have even told you that I knew, because it's none of my business what you do. But…"

Alex hesitated, looking torn.

"Look, I can't say much, but things are getting dangerous for people like you. You need to be more careful."

Peter frowned. "What do you mean? How can you possibly know something like that?"

"Peter, please." Alex looked up at Peter, his expression earnest. "I wish I could tell you, but you'll be safer in the long run if I don't. I just couldn't let you go out there without knowing the risks. People will be looking for you, and if I could find you, than they definitely will."

Peter opened his mouth to argue, to demand specifics, but he stopped when he saw Alex's expression. There was no deceit, no lie, just… concern. Real, genuine concern. Peter was taken aback by the obvious emotion on Alex's face. It wasn't that Alex was normally emotionless, it was just that you had to look carefully to spot the tells that let you know what he was feeling. For Alex to be so open now…

"You're really worried about me." Peter said quietly. Alex's eyes widened slightly, but then his expression became determined. He nodded sharply.

"These people, they will hurt you. You cannot give them the chance."

Peter huffed, frustrated. He trusted that Alex was on his side, but this whole conversation was so strange. How could Alex know any of this? Unless…

Peter's mouth moved before he could think.

"Like they hurt you?"

Alex's expression shuttered. He looked away, clenching his hands into fists. Peter paled. He couldn't believe that he had said that. He started to apologize, but Alex cut him off.

"It doesn't matter. I've said my piece. What you do know is up to you."

He stood up and pushed past Peter. He paused at the door, not looking at his stricken friend.

"Keep the knife." He muttered. "It may be useful."

In the next moment, Peter was alone. He stared at the knife that Alex had left. He picked it up and looked at it. Peter wasn't a knife expert, but even he could tell that this knife was very high quality. It had probably cost a lot.

Peter was confused. He had no idea what to do with Alex's advice. He had no idea what to do with Alex, period. He had always been more than a bit odd, but Peter really liked him. He was afraid that he had somehow ruined his friendship with the mysterious teen.

And then there was his weird implication that he knew something that Peter didn't. Peter didn't know where to even begin with that. Was Alex in danger? Did he need help? What kind of person not only had a knife like this, but also went around throwing it at people? And what was that whole thing about his uncle?

Peter groaned. His encounter with Alex had left him with so many questions. They chased each other around his head. Finally he gave up. There was nothing he could do now. He decided to just ask Alex tomorrow. That was the only way he would be able to get any answers. In the meantime, he needed to finish his homework. At least he wasn't tired anymore. The adrenaline shock had more than woken him up.

Peter grabbed his backpack and dropped it on his desk. Before he pulled out his homework, Peter slipped Alex's knife into one of the unused pockets he had added to his backpack when he started Spidermanning. He would return it to Alex at the same time he asked him his questions. He had no use for it, and he was afraid of what May would say if she found it.

That decided, Peter did his best to focus on his homework, ignoring the knife in his backpack. He had no idea how useful it would end up being.

* * *

**AN: The secret is out! What is going to happen now?**

**I hope you guys like this! I found it a lot of fun to write! Now I need to go work on my other stories that I've neglected to work on this one. Why do I do this to myself?**

**Anyway, bye guys! See ya around!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Hey guys!**

**I HAVE FINALLY SEEN ENDGAME! Ah, it was so good, and I had to wait forever before I could go see it. It's funny, cause I kinda made fun of the people who got all emotional over it, but I totally bawled my eyes out. Like, full on ugly sobbing. And not even over the movie, though I did cry then. No, it was the freaking end credits that completely destroyed me. Ugh. Why you gotta mess with my emotions so much MCU?**

**Anyway, onto the story! :D I just had to get that off my chest.**

**I don't own Alex Rider or the Avengers. Man, I wish. Have you seen how much money end game made?**

* * *

Peter glared at the back of Alex's head, but Alex ignored him. Peter growled quietly under his breath. He was positive that Alex heard him, but Alex's face was so nonreactive that it almost seemed as if he had fallen asleep sitting up. Peter resisted the urge to smash his head on his desk. This was so annoying! How could Alex be so calm? Peter liked to think he could be at least a little bit intimidating.

Peter had been trying to question Alex about their strange conversation for weeks, but nothing he did had any effect on his strange friend. Alex always acted confused whenever Peter brought it up, if he didn't just straight up ignore him. Peter would think he had imagined the whole thing if it weren't for the knife that was still residing in his backpack.

The knife was the one thing Alex had reacted to. When Peter tried to give it back, Alex had just looked at the thing for a moment before shaking his head.

"It was a gift." That was the only thing Alex ever said about his visit to Peter's house. No matter what Peter did, Alex remained completely silent about the encounter.

Peter tapped his pencil on his desk, trying to calm himself. If he were being honest with himself, he had pretty much given up on getting information out of Alex. Alex had always been good at misdirection and subterfuge (one look at his and Ned's relationship was proof of that) but he had somehow managed to up his game in that aspect. So, trying to pry any information out of Alex that he wasn't already willing to give was pretty much a lost cause from the get go.

He should probably just back off for the time being. Maybe Alex would let something slip if Peter wasn't constantly pressuring him into keeping his guard up. Sure, he would keep glaring and dropping loaded comments, just to let Alex know he wasn't letting it go, but that was all.

Besides, he didn't exactly have the time to keep working on a seemingly impossible goal. He had bigger problems at the moment.

Peter sent Alex one last glare before tuning back into the lesson. He hadn't missed much. His chemistry teacher was still lecturing about molecular bonds, a subject Peter was already well versed in. So instead of taking notes, he pulled out his 'spidey-journal.'

He flipped through it to a heavily annotated map of his neighborhood, frowning. There had been a noticeable uptick in crime in the past couple weeks. He wasn't sure if there was a reason or not, so he had started to mark every crime he stopped or noticed on this map, trying to see if he could spot a pattern. He quickly filled in the crimes he had noticed the night before, leaning back when he was down.

Peter frowned. He had hoped that as he added more crimes, something would stick out to him, but that hadn't happened. Most of the crimes were the regular type, nothing too strange. Definitely no obvious pattern that indicated some sinister plan was being put in motion. Could it be that he was creating a mountain out of a molehill? Afterall, he hadn't been doing this for very long. This could be a perfectly normal amount of crime for this type of neighborhood. Maybe he was overreacting…

Peter was about to put his notebook away when something caught his eye. It was one of the first crimes he had put on his map, back when he first noticed the surge in street crime. He had almost forgotten about it, but now that he had more time to just think, it suddenly struck him as strange.

On the surface, it looked like a normal robbery. A hardware store had been broken into and had some of their merchandise stolen. Peter hadn't even intervened in this crime; he had shown up later after the police had already been called. The strange thing about the crime was that no money had been stolen. The thieves hadn't even taken any of the more valuable materials, only taking basic construction materials like nails and plywood.

Peter hadn't thought much of the crime at the time. He had watched for a while before panicking when he realised how late it was. He had almost completely forgotten the crime, only remembering it the next morning because he had jotted it down in his notebook before crashing for the night. He had added it to his map a while later when he started getting more serious about investigating, and that had been the end of it. Until now.

By itself, the crime didn't mean all that much. But it was eerily similar to a crime that Peter had witnessed last night. Another hardware store was robbed, with nothing taken but aluminum siding. One such crime was a coincidence, but two?

The bell rang, interrupting his thoughts. Peter quickly packed up his notebook, not wanting anyone to spot it. He glanced up at the board and mentally groaned when he saw an assignment written there. He didn't have time to copy it down now, but he was sure that Alex would tell him the assignment after school in ac dec practice. They were still friends, even if Alex was being incredibly annoying about his strange, ominous warnings.

Peter huffed. His life was so weird.

* * *

"Thanks Alex!" Peter said, quickly scribbling down the homework assignment he had missed in chemistry. He gave Alex a grin, before letting his expression twist a bit. "I feel like this is just one of many things that you know and I don't!"

Alex gave him a weird look.

"Uh… okay. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Peter sighed as Alex left the room. Well, that failed epically.

Ned leaned on his shoulder, squashing Peter a bit.

"So… what's going on with you and Alex? You guys having a fight or something?"

"What? No! Everything is totally normal between us." Peter shoved Ned off of him, protesting all the while. Unfortunately, he didn't exactly sound convincing.

"Yeeaahhh…." Ned stretched the word out, clearly showing his disbelief. "Wanna try that again?"

Peter cursed mentally. Why wasn't he a better liar? If Alex wouldn't explain himself, maybe he could at least teach Peter some of his more sneaky skills.

"It really isn't that big of a deal," Peter insisted, packing up his things. "Alex just said something kinda weird to me a while ago and I've been trying to get him to explain it for ages. Key word there being trying."

"Oooohhhh…." Ned nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense. One time, Alex told me that I was the Con Ridly of our team. I mean, what does that even mean? Who is Con Ridly? Is it an insult or a compliment? Who knows? I mean, presumably Alex, but it will be a cold day in hell before he actually explains himself."

Peter snorted. It made him feel a bit better that he wasn't the only one who was confused by Alex. Sure, it wasn't exactly the same thing, but still. This proved that Alex wasn't necessarily _trying _to frustrate him. He was just... a frustrating person in general.

"You guys are morons. It isn't that hard to understand Alex." Ned and Peter both jumped at Michelle's voice, not having realized that she was listening in.

"Wait, do you know who Con Ridly is?" Ned asked, eyes wide. Michelle rolled her eyes.

"Of course not. It's probably someone Alex knew before he moved here. But, I do know that he was fond when he said it, so I doubt it was an insult. And that is the important thing here."

Ned squinted at Michelle. "Are you telling me you can actually discern emotion other than sardonic sarcasm in Alex's voice when he speaks?"

Michelle sighed, clearly disappointed by Ned's very existence.

"Not sure why I bother," she muttered as she walked out of the classroom.

"She has a point you know," Ned said after an awkward moment of silence.

"What?"

"About Alex I mean." Ned said. "I don't really get him, and sometimes I get the feeling that I don't want to. Honestly, the mere thought of understanding what goes on inside of Alex's head freaks me out. But in the end, he's our friend. That's what matters, right? I mean, we all have our quirks, so who are we to judge Alex's?"

Peter wanted to agree, he really did. He liked Alex. He liked being friends with him. But there were just too many things that didn't add up about him. The way he had leveled Flash, how twitchy he seemed all the time, that weird conversation. And then there was the way his spidey sense never really let up around him. When you put it all together…

"Yeah," Peter said finally. "He's our friend. That is all that matters."

* * *

Clint closed his laptop when Alex walked into the room.

"Hey Alex. How is academic decathlon going?"

"Good," Alex said offhandedly. "The first competition is coming up in a few weeks."

"Cool," Clint said carefully, taking Alex in. He wasn't sure, but something seemed a tad off in his behavior. "Think you guys are going to win?"

"Hmn. Probably." Alex set down his backpack and pulled out his phone, starting to scroll through it. Clint frowned. That definitely wasn't normal activity for Alex.

"Are you okay?"

Alex looked up, his expression neutral.

"Of course I'm okay. Why do you ask?"

"Well, you immediately got on your phone when you got home," Clint pointed out, setting his laptop on the coffee table. "You never use your phone at home. You just use your computer."

"I have friends now," Alex pointed out, looking down at his phone again. "Maybe I'm texting them."

"You're actually calling them your friends now?" Clint raised an eyebrow. "Last I heard, they were just teammates."

Alex opened his mouth before hesitating. He fiddled with his phone, before sighing and putting it down.

"I have what you might call… intimacy issues." Alex said slowly. Clint smothered his laughter poorly. That was a bit of an understatement. Alex sent him a tired glare.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. I thought you wanted me to be more open with my feelings."

"Sorry," Clint managed to say between muffled snickers. "It's just… "

"Yeah…" Clint sobered quickly at the sound of Alex's voice. He sounded legitimately upset.

Alex stared at the floor for a long moment.

"I… don't really know how friendship works. I mean, I'm friends with Tom, but that's different. He knows everything about me. We've known each other for years. I don't have to try with him. But with my new classmates… I don't understand them. They talk about things that make no sense to me. Their problems are so remote to my problems. How can I call them my friends when I can barely have a normal conversation with them?"

Alex looked up at Clint with pleading eyes. Clint sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I know it's hard. It can feel like you live in an entirely different world. And I doubt that feeling will ever go away entirely."

Alex's face started to crumple, but Clint continued.

"But here's the thing: do you like them?"

Alex blinked.

"Of course I do. I wouldn't put up with them if I didn't."

Clint nodded. "And do you want them to be happy?"

"Well, yeah." Alex sounded a bit put out. "Obviously I want them to be happy. Why?"

"Well, if you like them, and you want what's best for them, than I can confidently say you are friends with them!" Clint grinned, giving Alex a cheerful thumbs up.

Alex stared at him blankly.

"It's not that simple…" he mumbled weakly. Clint rolled his eyes.

"Why not? You don't have to know every single thing about a person to be friends with them. You like hanging out with them, they like hanging out with you. Why can't it be that simple?"

"I lie to them!" Alex spat.

"News flash, everyone lies. You honestly think that friends are constantly honest with each other? Yeah, you may lie a bit more than others, but you have a good reason. I doubt they would hold it against you."

Alex still looked a bit mutinous, but he didn't argue. He sat there for a moment before getting a thoughtful look on his face.

"What if… what if you don't know what the best thing to do for a friend is? What if you know they need help, but you don't know how to help them?"

Clint frowned. This wasn't like Alex's other questions. This was about something specific. He was tempted to push Alex for details about his friend's problem, but he knew Alex well enough to know that would only shut him down.

"I guess you just use your best judgement." He finally said. When Alex didn't respond, he decided to push it a little.

"Or you could ask for advice from a trusted adult…"

Alex raised an eyebrow.

"So, like Natasha."

"Hey!" Alex laughed at Clint's scandalized expression. He sobered quickly however, looking torn. Clint waited patiently, hoping desperately that Alex would open up.

"I found something out about one of my teammates…" Alex began, only to be cut off but a sudden noise. Clint jerked, looking around for the source, only to realize that the sound was coming from Alex's phone.

Alex grabbed his phone and looked at it. His expression didn't change, but his shoulders tensed.

"I have to go."

He stood up and headed toward the door, ignoring Clint's protests. He was gone before Clint could really process what had happened.

"Heyyyyyy buddy, what's… where'd he go?"

Clint glanced up at Tony who had chosen that moment to walk into the room.

"I'm not sure," he said, grabbing his laptop and standing up. "He got some kind of alert on his phone and ran out before I could stop him."

Tony frowned. "Jarvis?"

"Young Alex has left the building sir. I do not know what his destination was."

"Well, that's just perfect." Tony muttered. He looked at Clint. "Do you think he's okay?"

Clint thought about Alex's behavior that day, his strange questions. Slowly he shook his head.

"I don't know."

* * *

**AN: Just so you know, Con Ridly isn't a person or thing as far as I'm aware. I just wanted Alex to say something weird to Ned, and that was what I came up with.**

**Both Peter and Alex are doubting their friendship! Oh no! I hope this chapter was okay. Originally, it was going to be a lot more exciting with secrets and stuff being revealed, but I decided to do some more set up before launching into that. So get excited for next time!**

**Bye guys! See ya soon!**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Tra la la. Still ignoring my other stories in favor of this one. Definitely not feeling guilty over neglecting them in favor of writing a new story. Just happily writing this story, no underlying anxieties at all. Tra la.**

**Truthfully, this story is labeled 'terrible idea' in my files. Not because I think it's a bad story, but because I knew this would happen. I knew that I would end up neglecting my other stories. Ah well. At least you guys are benefiting from my terrible time management.**

**Guilt trip aside, enjoy the new chapter!**

**I don't own Alex Rider or the Avengers. I just have a deep affection for them. An affection I demonstrate by torturing the characters. Man, how am I still single?**

* * *

Peter stared at his notebook, thinking. In all honesty, he should have been working on his chemistry homework, but he felt like he was having the first real break he had had since he started investigating this whole mess and he couldn't pull himself away.

After getting home from ac dec practice, he had pulled his journal out and gone through it again, this time keeping an eye out for crimes that seemed just a little bit strange. He had managed to come up with sixteen that stuck out as odd to him. None of them were _that _unusual, and it wasn't anywhere close to the majority of crimes in the area, but put all together, they certainly painted a strange picture.

Peter flipped back over to his map, carefully circling each of the crimes he had singled out. Finished, he looked over his map once again.

_Bingo._

There it was. The pattern he had been looking for. The crimes centered around one area of the city, an area so close to his apartment it was practically in his backyard. Peter didn't go over there very often, but if he was remembering correctly, there were a bunch of old warehouses in that district. That would be a good place to set up a base. For what, he wasn't entirely sure. Still, this was a huge break.

Peter really wanted to go check it out right that moment, but he had promised May that they could have a movie night tonight, and there was no way he was backing out of that. He would just have to do it tomorrow.

Peter closed his notebook, slipping it into his backpack. He pulled out his chemistry homework and got to work. He wanted to finish it before tonight so he could properly focus on whatever horror movie May had picked out without being distracted by the true horror that was unfinished homework.

Peter was just finishing the last question when he heard May swearing in the kitchen. He popped his head out of his room, curious.

"What's wrong?" He asked. May left the kitchen, coming into his room.

"It's nothing." She waved a hand. "I just realized that we're out of popcorn, that's all."

"Well, that is a tragedy of extreme proportions!" Peter said dramatically. "We can't have a movie night without popcorn!"

May snorted. "Yeah, well we may have to. I have some stuff to finish for work, so I can't go get some before tonight."

Peter sighed. Well, he supposed it couldn't be helped. He had finished his chemistry homework, sure, but he still had a bunch more from other classes to finish before the night was out.

A thought struck him. He resisted the urge to glance at his backpack, where his notebook was resting. Getting popcorn wouldn't take very much time. And if he was leaving the house anyway...

"I could go get some." Peter said, giving May wat he hoped was a convincing smile. "I just finished my homework, so I'm free."

"Really." May raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced. "You finished all of your homework in the hour that you've been home."

Peter kept up his grin, refusing to back down.

"I finished a lot of it at school." He insisted. "I wanted to make sure that I would be ready for our movie night!"

"My hero." May said dryly. She looked at Peter closely before apparently deciding he was telling the truth. She pulled out her wallet and gave Peter a ten dollar bill. "Be back by six, alright? I want us to have dinner before we melt our brains with some good old fashioned horror."

"You betcha!" Peter grinned, shooting May some finger guns. He grabbed his backpack as he headed out the door. He tried to not act guilty as he left the apartment. Afterall, there was no real _reason _for him to feel guilty. He was going to the store to buy popcorn. And if he happened to make a detour to a certain warehouse district along the way, well.

What May didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

* * *

Peter huffed, disappointed. Well, this was a huge waste of time. And he had been so sure he had been onto something.

Peter had searched all of the warehouses in the district, only to come up empty. There was no evidence that this was some kind of base for a secret crime ring, or anything like that. Maybe he really was overthinking this whole thing.

He turned to leave, wondering how much junk food he could get for ten dollars.

He didn't make it far.

Peter's spidey sense roared and he dodged right without thinking. Something whipped past his face, embedding itself into the ground a few feet in front of him. Peter focused in on the object. His heart sank when he realized it was a tranquilizer.

"What do you know? The stories weren't an exaggeration."

Peter spun toward the voice, his guard up. A woman emerged from the shadows, a trang gun in her hand. She smiled at Peter. It wasn't a nice expression.

"I told you so," another voice said. Another figure appeared, a man this time. He ignored Peter, smirking at the woman. "I knew he would figure it out. He will be very useful."

The woman shrugged, never taking her eyes off of Peter. "Well, it never hurts to make sure."

"Who are you?" Peter asked, unnerved by the whole situation. He had searched this warehouse, and these people hadn't been there. Where had they come from?

"You don't need to worry about that sweetheart." The woman said, that sickly sweet smile still on her face. She spoke in a deep southern drawl which grated on Peter's nerves. "All you need to know is that we are going to be your new family. You will be a wonderful addition to our organization."

"What are you talking about? How could I be useful? I'm just a kid!" Peter was starting to get frantic. He didn't know who these people were, but he knew they were dangerous. He needed to get out, but he couldn't risk exposing his identity.

"No need to be shy," the man said, finally looking at Peter. "We know exactly who you are, _Spiderman._"

Peter's blood ran cold. Was this what Alex had been talking about? Had he known that these people were after him?

"What… I'm not…"

The woman laughed, cutting off Peter's protests.

"Please. Of course you are. Why else would we go to all the trouble of setting up this test?"

"Test?" Peter said faintly.

"Yup. Surely you've noticed the crime wave that's hit this area. We did that to see if you were more than just a kid with superpowers." The man grinned, his expression sharp and predatory. "We wanted to see if you had a brain in that big head of yours. Glad to see that you do. That makes you a much greater prize."

"I'm not a prize." Peter growled. "And if you really think I'm Spideman, then what makes you think you can take me?"

"Oh honey," the woman shook her said mockingly. "You have no idea."

Peter's spidey sense reared again, but not in an immediate way. He looked around, trying to find what had caused it, only to realize that there were no fewer than fifteen laser sights focussed on his chest. He felt sick. If there were really that many snipers in the building, then there was no was he could avoid all of them.

"Why don't you just come with us, sugar?" The lady asked, pulling out a hypodermic needle. "Afterall, there's no need for this to get messy."

Peter swallowed. He knew his chances of getting out were slim, but there was no way he was going with them willingly. He shifted his weight, getting ready to move.

"Enough!"

A voice cut through the tension. Peter turned, shocked not only by the sudden voice, but also by the fact that he recognized it.

_It can't be…_

But even as he thought it, Alex Rider walked into the room.

"You're right Cartman. There is no need for this to get messy. So why don't you just take your men and leave."

The woman, Cartman apparently, beamed.

"Alex! It's so good to see you! It's been such a long time! And didn't I tell you to call me Darla?"

"You did." Alex's expression never wavered. "And I told you to go to hell. A sentiment which I still stand by."

"Watch your mouth Rider," the man snarled. "Darla may be the forgiving type, but I'm not."

Alex squinted at the man. He tapped his finger on his head for a few seconds before he lit up.

"Holy crap, is that you Chris? Man, I would've thought you'd be dead by now. You never were very effective in the field. Still, congrats on getting promoting to kidnapping teengers I guess. I always knew you had it in you."

Chris snarled again, starting forward. He stopped when Darla put a hand on his shoulder. She shook her head disappointedly at Alex.

"This attitude problem of yours is why we never had a good working relationship."

"Right." Alex said blandly. "It had nothing to do with you using me as bait for a terrorist organization."

Darla waved a hand. "Please Alex, let's not bring up past unpleasantness. It worked out in the end."

"I was shot three times."

"And yet you're still alive." Chris said bitterly. He seemed rather disappointed by that fact.

"As lovely as it is to see you again," Darla said loudly, cutting off anything else Chris might have said. "I'm afraid I don't have time to chat. I came here to retrieve the boy, and I am not leaving without him."

"Funny," Alex crossed his arms. "I was about to say the same thing. Except for the thing about it being lovely to see you again."

"Alex," Darla said disapprovingly, "That is not going to happen. We have claimed this boy. And according to new legislation, we are allowed to do that. So please, don't make this harder than it needs to be."

"New legislation?" Alex raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't be talking about the Sokovia Accords, would you? Surely not. Afterall, those haven't actually been passed yet, so trying to use them as an excuse for kidnapping puts you on some pretty shaky legal standing."

Darla's smile slipped for the first time.

"The accords are as good as passed." She said through gritted teeth. "We are simply protecting our investment. If we wait until they pass officially, someone else may try to claim our prize."

"I'm not a prize." Peter snapped. He was a little tired of everyone talking about him like he wasn't there. Alex glanced at him, giving him a slight smile.

"Of course you're not. And even if you were, you're one that I have already won."

"What are you saying Rider?" Chris asked, his angry expression faltering slightly. Alex gave him an amused look.

"Surely you know that Peter and I go to school together. Did you really think that was a coincidence? My group has been interested in recruiting him for months. I was sent to that school to keep an eye on him."

"You're lying." Darla said after a pregnant pause. "They wouldn't recruit a child."

Alex grinned. It was a dangerous look on him. "They took me in, didn't they?"

Darla took a step back. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she abruptly smiled again. Peter took a nervous step back as she started to laugh, but Alex stood his ground, apparently unaffected by her borderline hysterical laughter.

"I'm just now remembering why I put up with you. You really are something else Alex Rider. It sure is a shame that those handlers of yours let you go. Are you sure you wouldn't like to come work for us full time?"

Alex looked thoughtful for a second. He opened his mouth.

"Go to hell."

Darla laughed again. "Oh I have missed you. Alright Alex, you win this round. I'll let you keep your little friend. But you better hold onto him tight, ya hear? If people think you aren't serious about him being one of you, they'll come sniffing. And the next group may not be so friendly."

With that final warning, Darla left. Chris sent Alex one last glare, which Alex responded to by throwing up a peace sign. Chris snorted in disgust before following his boss. Shortly afterward, Peter felt his spidey sense recede as the laser sights on his body disappeared. He let out a slow breath. Okay. He was okay. No need to panic.

Peter reviewed the past half hour in his head. Okay, so maybe a little panic was justified.

"What just happened?" he practically shrieked. "Who were those people? What did they want? How did you know them? How did you know to be here? Alex! What's going on?"

Alex didn't respond for a long time. He looked conflicted. Finally he spoke.

"I was hoping to keep you out of this." He said quietly. "I suppose that was naive. As long as you were out there on the streets, someone was going to find you. It's just a matter of the lesser of two evils now."

"...what?" Peter said weakly. Why couldn't Alex just answer questions like a normal person?

Alex sent Peter an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry for how I've been acting these past few weeks. Keeping secrets is kind of instinctive to me at this point. But… I think you deserve to know what's been going on. Especially considering how much it concerns you now."

"Oh." Peter took a deep breath. "Yeah, that would be nice."

Alex nodded sharply before looking around.

"But not here. We need to get somewhere safe."

He turned around and headed toward the door. Peter trailed after him, not sure what else to do.

"Um," he asked nervously. "Where are we going?"

Alex glanced at Peter over his shoulder before facing forward again.

"I think it's time you met my family."

* * *

**AN: AW YEAH! Peter is going to meet the Avengers! And Alex is finally going to tell the poor boy what the heck is going on. Hang on Peter! It will all make sense soon!**

**Anyway, hope you liked the chapter. Those OC's are never gonna come up again, in case you were worried. They are just some group that Alex has worked with in the past. Still trying to decide which one… Ah well. It doesn't matter that much.**

**Bye guys! See ya next time, and happy Fourth of July to all you Americans! And non Americans too I guess. Everyone just have a great day tomorrow! :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Well. I took a break to work on a couple of my other stories, so now I can work on this one without feeling guilty! Yay!**

**I don't own Alex Rider or the Avengers. I have no joke today. Shame…**

* * *

Peter stared up at the building, his mouth hanging open. It hadn't even occurred to him that this was where they were headed. Even as they got closer and closer to the building, Peter was still convinced that Alex was going to vere off at the last second. It was only when Alex actually opened the main doors to the building that reality sank in.

"Uh, Alex?" He said, his voice at least an octave higher. Alex paused in the doorway, looking back at Peter.

Peter pointed at the building.

"This is Avengers Tower."

Alex just nodded. "Yes."

"Where the Avengers live," Peter continued, just in case Alex had missed his point.

"Yes." Another nod.

"You are walking into Avengers Tower, the place where the Avengers live." Peter said desperately.

"Yes."

Peter gave up. Alex was clearly insane. Of course, Peter was the one who was blindly following him, so it wasn't like he had room to talk.

Alex walked through the lobby of the building, Peter trailing behind. No one stopped him as he entered the elevator and pushed the button for _the top floor of the building what are you doing Alex?_

"Welcome back sir. You caused quite the commotion with your sudden exit."

Peter yelped, looking around for the voice. Alex ignored his panic, leaning against the side of the elevator and crossing his arms.

"It was necessary." He said shortly. "I'll explain when I get up there."

"We all look forward to it." The voice said, sounding a bit too polite to be genuine. "In the meantime, who is your friend?"

Alex sighed. "Jarvis, Peter. Peter, Jarvis."

"Welcome Peter. I hope that you enjoy your stay at Avengers Tower."

"Thank you." Peter said faintly. "Um, if you don't mind me asking…"

"Jarvis is an AI that Tony Stark created." Alex cut in. "He basically runs the Tower."

"Indeed." the voice, Jarvis, said. "In fact, the only thing I seem to be unable to keep track of is you, Alex."

Alex smirked, but didn't say anything. Peter decided it was probably in his best interest not to get in between an AI and the scariest fifteen year old he had ever met, so he stayed silent as well. He prayed silently for the elevator ride to end, if only to break the awkward tension filling the small space. An agonizing wait later, the elevator finally slowed and opened.

"ALEX!"

Oh no. Nevermind, he would rather stay in the elevator forever.

Tony Stark stormed forward, his arms flapping all over the place. He seemed angry.

"Where did you go? You know you can't just leave like that! What if something happened? I tried to call you but you didn't pick up!"

"You mean you tried to track my location through my phone and failed." Alex said dryly, not the least bit concerned that one of the richest men in the world was yelling at him. "Relax. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Besides, it was an emergency. I didn't have time to explain myself."

Mr. Stark squinted at Alex. "Emergency? What emergency?"

Looking back on that moment, Peter couldn't believe that he didn't see it coming. He had a supernatural sense that warned him of danger, for goodness sake. Despite that, it was still a complete and utter shock when Alex pointed his thumb at him and said, "That."

Peter's life flashed before his eyes as the full force of Tony Stark's gaze fixed on him. He swallowed harshly, trying to get his nerves under control.

_Be cool, be cool. This is Tony Freaking Stark, make a good first impression!_

"Uh. Hi- hello, Mr. Stark. Sir."

_Nailed it._

Peter began to try and melt through the floor, certain that he would never live this down. The billionaire didn't seem to notice his complete mortification, raising an eyebrow.

"Jarvis?"

"Peter Parker, sir. He goes to Alex's school. They are both on the Academic Decathlon team."

Peter paled as the AI spoke. How did it know that? Did it look him up after Alex had told him his name? Or had it already known and just asked to psych him out? What was going on?

"Chill kid, we don't bite."

Peter spun to see the new voice. It was a man he didn't really recognize, so it was probably Hawkeye. He was one of the more elusive members of the Avenger team. And one of the more deadly, if the rumors were to be believed.

_Oh good,_ Peter thought hysterically. _An assassin is telling me to calm down. Wonderful. Why was I freaking out in the first place?_

"I think you'd better explain before your friend passes out." A deep voice chimed in.

Ah. Now Captain America is here.

"I think I'm going to sit down now." Peter said in a perfectly calm voice. Or maybe not, because Alex's eyes widened and he lunged toward Peter. That was the last thing he saw before his world went black.

* * *

"Seriously Alex? You just dragged the kid here without telling him anything? No wonder he fainted!"

Voices seeped into Peter's mind as he slowly awoke. This was a voice he didn't recognize, a female voice.

"I'm sorry, alright? It didn't occur to me that he would freak out so badly! I mean, I was fine the first time I met you guys!"

"We were in the middle of a firefight Alex. It's not exactly a normal benchmark.

Peter's brow furrowed in confusion. Firefight? What were they talking about?

"I think he's waking up!"

Another new voice. Peter was getting sick and tired of all these new voices.

"Peter? Are you okay?"

No, he was not okay. But lying there with his eyes closed wouldn't help anything, so he might as well open them and face the music.

Bracing himself, Peter pried his eyes open. Only to find himself face to face with Bruce Banner.

Peter shrieked, sitting up rapidly and scooting backwards, pointing a finger at the man.

"You're… you're…."

Dr. Banner sighed, longsuffering.

"Yes, I'm the Hu-"

"The greatest scientist of your generation!" Peter finally managed to finish his sentence. Dr. Banner blinked as Peter began to ramble.

"Oh my gosh, it is such an honor to meet you! I've read all your papers, even if I don't understand them very well yet, I'm really trying. Your research is so interesting, and oh my gosh, wait til I tell Ned I met the actual Dr. Banner, he is going to be so jealous, I mean, there's a picture of you in our science room at school, and I just really think you're so cool and-"

Peter cut himself off when he heard laughter. He looked over to see Alex and Hawkeye snickering, clearly amused by his ramblings. Peter turned bright red as he realized he had gone full on fan boy in front of some of his biggest heros. He covered his face with his hands, completely mortified.

"Alright, lay off the kid." Mr. Stark said, whacking Hawkeye on the back of the head. "We have bigger things to worry about."

Alex sobered quickly as everyone in the room focused on him. Peter took a quick glance around and almost fainted again when he realised that the entire Avengers team was there. He quickly focussed back on Alex before he could get overwhelmed again.

"Ok. So. You all probably want explanations." Alex said carefully. When no one responded beyond nods, he continued.

"Well. For any of this to make sense, we all need to know two pieces of information. The first one is for Peter."

Alex took a deep breath and looked Peter in the eyes.

"I was blackmailed into working for MI6 from the age of eleven, until I was taken in by the Avengers last year."

Peter's mind went blank. He knew that Alex was a bit strange, but he had not been expecting that. He opened his mouth, but stopped when Alex held up a hand.

"You don't want to know anymore then that. Trust me."

Alex's face was dark as he spoke, full of secrets and bad memories. Peter swallowed his questions down, his spidey sense tingling faintly in the background. Alex was right. He really didn't want to know anything else.

Once he was sure that Peter wouldn't speak, Alex lowered his hand. He looked away from Peter, fixing his gaze on the wall.

"Oh, and Peter is Spiderman."

There was a moment of dead silence before the room exploded.

Peter shrank in on himself as the Avengers yelled. He was terrified. What were they going to do to him? Was he in trouble?

"SHUT UP!"

The voice cut through the din, returning the room to relative silence. Peter blinked as he took in the woman who had spoken, his gaze catching on her red hair.

_Black Widow._

She glared at her teammates before turning to Peter, her expression softening as she took in his frightened expression.

"Don't worry, you aren't in trouble." She said with a smile. The smile turned into a glare as she shifted her gaze toward Alex. "But he might be."

Alex glared right back, once again proving he had no self preservation instincts.

"I didn't do anything wrong," he muttered, crossing his arms. It took Peter a moment to realize that he was pouting. He had never seen Alex pout before. He wasn't even aware that the teen was capable of looking that childish.

"Why don't we all calm down?" Captain America said, holding up his arms. The group grumbled a bit, but they all settled back into their chairs. Alex was the only one who remained standing.

"Look, it isn't that big of a deal," he insisted, still looking quite defensive. "I found out a couple weeks ago by accident. I didn't go out of my way or anything. I didn't even do anything illegal. Peter is just crap at keeping secrets."

"Hey," Peter said halfheartedly. If he were being honest, he couldn't really refute Alex's words. Still, it seemed a bit harsh to just say it like that.

"Right." Black Widow seemed unimpressed with his explanation. "So why did you bring him in now if you've known for weeks?"

Alex looked incredibly uncomfortable. He refused to meet anyone's gaze, staring at the floor.

"I was attacked."

Peter wasn't sure why he spoke, especially after everyone's attention was shifted onto him, but now that he had started, he was determined to continue.

"Some people set me up. They knew I was Spiderman. They lured me into an abandoned area and tried to kidnap me. If it weren't for Alex, they probably would have succeeded."

Peter frowned as a thought occurred to him.

"But, how did you know to come?" He asked, looking up at Alex. "I mean, I'm grateful you did, don't get me wrong, but how did you know?"

Alex sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"That knife I gave you? It wasn't just a knife."

"You gave him one of your knives?" Hawkeye raised an eyebrow. "You must really like him."

Alex glared at the man half heartedly.

"Moving on," he practically growled, "that knife had a sophisticated tracking and signal detection system in it. With it, I could see where you were, and more importantly, it would register various radio waves in the area. I set it up to notify me if it registered any radio frequencies used by a number of different groups that I programmed into it. That way I would know if you came into contact with any groups with less than pure intentions."

Peter blinked. He grabbed his backpack and pulled the knife out. He couldn't help but feel grateful he had just carried it around with him everywhere. Who knows what would have happened if he hadn't.

"Why?"

Peter looked over at the Black Widow. She had a dark look on her face that made him instantly nervous. Alex looked unaffected by it, but Alex looked unaffected by everything.

"It never hurts to be prepared." He said in a neutral voice. Black Widow shook her head.

"Not good enough Alex. I know you. You wouldn't have gone to all that trouble for no reason. Why did you do it?"

Alex looked tired. "Please, Nat. Just let it go. You don't want to do this, especially not now."

"Yes now!" Black Widow (Nat?) insisted, her voice getting louder. "You always do this! You ignore problems, push them off over and over because you think that they'll just go away if you ignore them! Not this time. Why did you bug Peter like that?"

"Because of the Sokovia Accords!" Alex yelled, causing everyone in the room to startle. Alex glared at Black Widow, breathing heavily.

"I did it because I was worried about what would happen to him if the Sokovia Accords went through."

The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Peter didn't know what the Sokovia Accords were, but they were clearly a sore subject.

"You know about that." Hawkeye's voice was flat, quiet. Peter hadn't known the man long, but it seemed out of character for him.

"Of course I do," Alex spat, his voice bitter. "Did you really think you could hide it from me? I've known for more than a month now."

"Alex… " Captain America began, his voice full of regret, but Alex cut him off.

"No. We aren't doing this right now. We need to figure out what to do with Peter. Everything else can wait."

Captain America looked torn, but he eventually nodded. The rest of the Avengers agreed as well, though none of them looked happy about it.

Peter shrank in his seat.

"Sorry to be a problem." He whispered. Mr. Stark rolled his eyes.

"Please. As if you could ever be as bad as this little imp."

He ruffled Alex's hair, drawing an indigent squawk out of the boy. Peter couldn't help but giggle at the look on Alex's face. Mr. Stark grinned.

"Come on Spidey. Let me show you around. Something tells me you're going to be around a lot in the future, so you should get to know the place. Though if you ever get lost, you can just ask Jarvis for help. That's what I pay him for."

"You don't pay me anything sir." Jarvis put in helpfully. Mr. Stark waved a hand.

"Semantics. Anyway, first up is the kitchen, the most dangerous room in the Tower. You eat the wrong person's food, and you will regret it forever. I should know, one time I was looking through the fridge, which I bought by the way, and I saw this delicious looking piece of-"

Peter listened to the man speak, desperate to get a bit of normalcy after this hectic day. As he followed Mr. Stark out of the room, he completely missed the sad look Alex was giving him. Even if he had noticed the look, he wouldn't have understood it. At least, not at that point in time.

There would come a day where he would understand exactly why Alex had been so upset that Peter had finally met the Avengers.

* * *

**AN: Yeah! Peter met the Avengers! And that makes Alex sad for some reason! Yay!**

**Don't worry, nothing too horrible is going to happen. Alex has issues that he has never really worked through, and he is going to project those onto Peter. It will make sense, I promise.**

**Also, you'll notice that Peter doesn't know all of their names. I know that all SHIELD information was let out in the canon, but that never happened in this universe, so Peter doesn't know Clint, Nat, or even Steve's real names. That will be rectified going forward.**

**Also, yay! Tony and Peter bonding! It has begun! It will only grow from here.**

**Anyway, I hope you guys liked it! Bye for now!**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: ….**

**I have no excuse.**

**I don't own Alex Rider or the Avengers.**

* * *

"So I put it through the gap right here?"

"Yeah," Tony said without actually looking over at the kid. In the week he had known Peter he had proven himself to be incredibly intelligent. Tony trusted him in his lab more than anyone except Bruce. Despite this, Peter was constantly checking with Tony before he did anything. He rarely actually needed help in these situations. He just needed the reassurance. The kid had one hell of a self confidence problem.

"You didn't even look," Peter complained, but he went through with it anyway. Tony set down his soldering gun and glanced over at Peter. His forehead was scrunched in concentration as he threaded the wire through the small gap in the web shooter prototype he was working on. His hands were completely steady as he completed the delicate work.

"See!" Tony said with a grin as Peter set the device down. "Nothing exploded! A complete success!"

"If we could raise the bar for success a little higher than 'not exploding,' that would be great." A dry voice comentated. Tony turned to see Bruce walking into the room, going over a clipboard filled with notes on his current project. He paused next to Peter, smiling at him.

"It's 5:30 kid. Time to be heading home."

Peter's eyes widened. His first trip to the Tower had been cut short by a phone call from his hysterical aunt. He had been extremely late getting home and she had been unable to reach him until that moment.

Tony wasn't entirely sure how Peter had explained his absence, but it clearly hadn't been a very good explanation. He had been stuck with a rather strict six o' clock curfew ever since.

"Right! Thanks Dr. Banner. I'll go grab my stuff."

Peter ran out of the room, clearly in a hurry. Tony chuckled, shaking his head as he went back to his own project.

"What are you working on?" Bruce asked, walking over to his section of the lab. Tony made a noncommittal noise.

"Nothing much. Just playing around with a few ideas. May not go anywhere."

"You shouldn't tell lies Tony."

Tony and Bruce both jumped, turning to see Alex standing in the doorway of the lab. Bruce put a hand on his chest, trying to slow his heart rate.

"Alex, how many times do I have to tell you that surprising me is a bad idea?" He asked, taking deep breaths as he tried to calm down. Alex ignored him, his gaze locked on Tony.

"You're making Peter a new suit."

Bruce blinked, lowering his hand. He looked over at Tony.

"Is that true?"

Tony huffed, crossing his arms defensively.

"So what if it is? I'm not doing anything wrong."

"If you really thought that, you wouldn't have lied about it." Alex said in a soft, dangerous voice. Tony rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on. I wasn't even really lying. It really is nothing more than a few ideas right now. More of a thought experiment than anything else. This is a new enhanced human we are talking about! Of course I want to explore the possibilities. Sue me."

"Hmm." Alex walked into the room, pulling up a holographic interface. "This looks like a bit more than a 'thought experiment' Tony."

With a few movements, Alex pulled up a set of blueprints. Tony shut them down just as quickly, but it was evident what they were in the few moments that they were up.

"How did you get those?" Tony muttered, not really expecting an answer. It was impossible to keep anything from Alex. The whole mess with the Sokovia Accords was proof of that.

"Tony, if you're making a suit for Peter, just admit it." Bruce said, slightly exasperated with the whole argument. "It isn't that big of a deal."

"How can you say that?" Alex said, rounding on Bruce. "If Tony makes a suit for Peter, he will be officially associated with the Avengers. We don't want that, remember?"

Bruce sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Well, yes, but it honestly is the best option we have. Being a member of the Avengers would give Peter a level of protection that he wouldn't have under the other sections of the accords."

"I thought you were going to stop the accords from ever happening." Alex muttered.

"That is the plan." Bruce admitted, looking uncomfortable. "But we have to plan for the worst here. If the accords go through-"

"If the accords go through, then our best bet is making sure Peter isn't affected by them!" Alex yelled. "And getting him embroiled in the Avengers isn't going to do that!"

"Enough." Tony shouted slamming down his soldering gun. Alex shut his mouth abruptly. He crossed his arms and looked away mulishly.

Tony groaned. "Look Alex, I get it, alright? You're scared, and you want to protect your friend. But Peter isn't you. He wants to fight. Nothing we do is going to stop him from going out there and doing what he thinks is right. And if he's going to be fighting, we might as well make sure he has the tools to survive, right?"

Alex looked conflicted. He started to say something, but stopped when Peter ran back into the room, waving his backpack around.

"Sorry it took so long. I couldn't find my backpack."

Alex turned away from Tony.

"Come on," he said to Peter. "I'll walk you home."

"Oh, okay!"

Peter followed Alex out of the room, waving goodbye to Tony and Bruce. Soon the two boys were gone, leaving the scientists alone.

Tony sighed, leaning against his work table.

"Am I doing the right thing Bruce?" He asked quietly. Bruce set his clipboard down, looking worn and old.

"I hope so."

* * *

Peter followed Alex, a little nervous. Alex was walking quickly, shoulders hunched. His body language screamed that he did not want to talk.

Peter fidgeted with his backpack strap. He wanted to talk to Alex, but the teen spy had been even more reclusive than usual since he had introduced him to the Avengers. Peter wasn't sure what had Alex so upset, but he really didn't want to turn that anger on himself.

Still… a few questions couldn't hurt… Right?

"Um, Alex?" Peter asked nervously. Alex's pace didn't change at all.

"Yes Peter?"

"I wanted… that is, can I ask you a couple of questions?"

Alex's pace seemed to hiccup before smoothing out again. He shrugged one shoulder.

"Sure."

"Oh." Peter thought fast. He hadn't thought he would get this far.

"Were you really sent to my school to keep an eye on me?" He finally asked with no small amount of trepidation. Alex snorted, some of the tension going out of his shoulders.

"No. The whole thing was just a coincidence. I'd say what are the odds, but considering the life I've lived, it seems almost inevitable that we would meet."

Peter sighed, relieved. He'd known that Alex had probably been bluffing when he said that, considering the Avengers had had no clue who he was before Alex brought him to the Tower, but he was glad that he was right. He didn't like the idea of some secret intelligence organization watching him for months without him even realizing it.

Peter thought back to Darla's cold eyes and shivered, resisting the urge to grab the knife from his backpack. He carried it everywhere with him now. Speaking of which…

"Hey Alex. How did you know I was going to carry around that knife you gave me?"

Alex shrugged with both shoulders this time. "I didn't. I was mostly worried about people abducting you in your sleep. I didn't think anyone would have the balls to try and lure you away into a trap."

"Oh." Peter said faintly. That… wasn't a pleasant scenario to imagine. He wondered if he would be comfortable enough to sleep if he kept the knife under his pillow at night.

"Yeah," Alex said quietly, bitterness coating his words, "these people don't tend to play fair. You have to play even more dirty if you want to survive."

Peter swallowed, looking away from Alex. The urge to question Alex about what he had said, to try and learn about what had happened to him, was overwhelming. He really didn't know much, afterall. All Alex had said was that he 'worked' for MI6. What did that even mean? 'Work' could be practically anything. He had been eleven when it started, so it couldn't have been that bad.

Right?

"Hey Pete."

Peter jumped, focussing back on Alex. He no longer looked angry, more... thoughtful, almost confused.

"Why… why do you do what you do?"

Peter blinked, taken aback. "What do you mean?"

Alex huffed. "I mean, why do you go out and risk your life every night? Why do you fight?"

Peter frowned.

"Why wouldn't I? I have all these abilities that no one else has. If I didn't use them to help people, what kind of person would that make me?"

Alex didn't say anything for a long time.

"I used to believe that." He finally said, his voice so quiet Peter was pretty sure he could only hear it because of his enhanced hearing. "I used to rationalize everything, saying that it was all for the greater good, but then…"

Alex shook his head sharply.

"It doesn't matter." He sped up, leaving Peter behind. "Come on, let's get you home."

Peter didn't move.

"Alex?"

Alex stopped, not turning to look at Peter.

"What… what did you do for MI6?"

The world seemed to freeze. Peter was sure that there were still people around them, going about their day, but they may as well not exist for all the attention he was giving them. His focus was entirely narrowed in on Alex. He waited, not sure if he was desperate for an answer, or desperate not to receive one.

Alex didn't make a sound. He let his head fall back til he was staring at the sky. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes.

"Have you ever killed someone?"

Peter's blood ran cold.

"What? No, of course not! I'm only fifteen!"

Alex laughed. It wasn't a happy sound.

"Yeah? Well I was twelve."

Peter's stomach lurched. No. That, he couldn't mean.

"Of course, if you count the people whose deaths I caused, then I started at the sweet young age of eleven. But yeah, I was twelve the first time I shot someone point blank in the head."

Alex pulled out a knife, flipping it with ease.

"Of course, I've learned a wide variety of killing methods since then. I try to avoid guns these days. They're too noisy. I'm quite partial to knives, but I can make do with pretty much anything. Including my bare hands if it comes down to it."

"You're lying." Peter felt distant from himself, his words coming to him seemingly from a distance. Alex laughed again, this time sounding a bit more genuine.

"Sure. If that will make you feel better. I am a liar by nature after all. It would probably be in your best interest to take everything I say with a pinch of salt."

"Why are you telling me this?" Peter asked desperately. All traces of mirth were wiped away from Alex's face.

"Why did you ask?"

Peter couldn't answer. He felt like he could barely breathe. Alex sighed, looking tired.

"Look, can we just forget this whole conversation ever happened? It's almost six, your aunt is going to be worried. Let's go."

Peter nodded numbly, following Alex as he started walking again.

Soon they were at Peter's apartment complex. Alex stopped at the front door, waiting as Peter unlocked it.

Peter paused as he fumbled with his key. He hesitated before speaking.

"It doesn't matter."

Alex frowned. "What?"

Peter took a deep breath. "Even if everything you said was true, I'm still your friend. No matter what."

Alex stared at Peter. Peter stared back, refusing to break eye contact. He needed Alex to see that he was sincere.

Alex looked away first, saying nothing. Peter sighed and finished unlocking his door, pulling it open.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

Peter spun at Alex's words, but the spy was already gone. Despite this, Peter smiled as he entered his apartment.

"See ya tomorrow. Friend."

* * *

**AN: Hm. Not so sure about that ending, but I got stuff to do and this chapter needs to go up, so… good enough!**

**I have learned that I should not make any promises when it comes to these stories so… Bye! Thanks for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: It seems I have not learned my lesson. Lovely. If it makes you feel better, I feel crippling guilt every time I take a long time to update. **

**Actually, that doesn't sound better at all. Hm.**

**Anyway! I don't own Alex Rider or the Avengers! With that out of the way, enjoy. **

* * *

Alex watched Peter and Ned quiz each other with slight amusement. Today was the state Academic Decathlon tournament, and the entire team was on edge as they waited for the bus that would bring them to the competition. They had barely missed out on going to nationals last year, so they were determined to make it this time.

Alex wasn't particularly worried. Their team had been practicing for months now, and they knew the material. He was confident that they would do well.

The bus finally arrived and Mr. Harrington started ushering the students onboard. Alex waited near the end of the line, wanting to spend as little time on the cramped bus as possible. As he was waiting, he felt his phone vibrate.

Alex frowned, confused. Very few people knew that phone number, and considering the fact that he could literally see Peter, it had to be one of the Avengers.

The last couple of weeks had been tense in Avengers Tower. The knowledge that Alex knew about the Sokovia Accords had driven a rift between him and the superheros. Throwing Peter into the mix hadn't helped anything either. Alex had pretty much stopped talking to the Avengers in the past week. So why were they contacting him now, right before his competition?

Alex fished his phone out of his pocket, opening up his messages. He climbed onto the bus distractedly, more focussed on his phone. He had one new message, from Clint. Alex felt a sudden swell of unease, but he forced it down and opened the text.

Alex read the message quickly. It wasn't hard, considering the message was only two words long. Despite that, he couldn't help but read it again, sure he had misunderstood it somehow. Finally the message hit home. He was vaguely aware of the phone slipping from his fingers, but he didn't care. All he could think about were those two words.

_It passed._

* * *

Peter groaned as Ned asked him a particularly difficult question. He turned to ask Alex, only to watch as Alex's phone slipped out of his hand. He lunged forward and caught it right before it hit the ground. He grinned up at Alex, about to tease him, but stopped when he saw the look on Alex's face. He looked… scared. Peter had never seen Alex look scared before. Even when he had that breakdown in class, he had looked more resigned than scared. What could have happened to make Alex look like that?

"Alex?" Peter asked cautiously. His tone caused other members of the team to turn and look at the pair. He could tell they noticed Alex's expression by the whispers that immediately sprung up. He wanted to yell at them for being so judgemental, but Alex was more important at the moment.

Alex hadn't responded to Peter's voice. His eyes were glazed over, as if he wasn't really there at the moment. Peter wasn't sure what to do. Something told him that touching Alex while he was in this state would be a bad idea.

"Alex? Peter? What's the hold up?" Peter started as Mr. Harrington spoke. The man was the last person to get on the bus, and his way was currently being blocked by a comatose Alex. Peter watched in fascinated horror as Mr. Harrington reached out to grab Alex's shoulder.

"No!" He yelled, his own hand darting out and stopping Mr. Harrington's inches away from Alex. Mr. Harrington looked at Peter in alarm.

"Ah! Sorry Mr. Harrington," Peter said sheepishly, releasing the man's arm. "I just think it would be a really, really bad idea to touch Alex right now."

Understanding lit up in Mr. Harrington's eyes. He looked at Alex in concern. Alex hadn't reacted to Peter's shout, another sign that something was terribly wrong.

"Alex? Please say something." Peter whispered. For some reason, this seemed to do the trick. Alex's eyes cleared, his gaze latching onto Peter. He blinked a few times before grabbing Peter by the arm. Peter yelped at the harsh grip, but Alex ignored him, dragging him toward the door of the bus.

"Alex? What are you doing?" Peter yelled, trying to free his arm from Alex's grip without making it too obvious he had super strength. Alex merely tightened his grip.

"We are going to my house." He said, his voice sharp, "And we are going to stay there until I say otherwise."

"What?" Peter gave up on freeing his arm and instead braced himself against the seats. "No! The competition is today! We can't just bail."

Alex yanked on Peter's arm, but was unable to dislodge him. He turned toward Peter with a scowl.

"We are not debating this." Alex spat at Peter. He turned back around only to see Mr. Harrington staring at him. His expression softened slightly.

"I'm sorry Mr. Harrington," he said with a polite nod of his head, "but it's an emergency."

Mr. Harrington nodded slowly.

"Well, if it's an emergency, I guess it will be okay. We can always put Flash in…"

"No." Peter yelled, finally yanking his arm out of Alex's grip. "I'm not leaving." He backed away from Alex, crossing his arms.

Deep down, Peter knew that this was probably a stupid decision. Alex wouldn't suddenly flake out like this without a good reason. Peter was probably putting both himself and Alex in danger by refusing to leave, but he didn't care. If it were just him that would suffer by missing the competition, he would go with Alex, but it wasn't. The entire team would be hurt if both Alex and Peter failed to compete. He refused to ruin all of their hard work.

Alex huffed, looking frustrated.

"Peter," he said in an urgent whisper. "This isn't a game. We need to go."

Peter scowled. "Well, you can go, but I'm staying right here."

Alex groaned, yanking on his hair out of pure frustration. He seemed to debate with himself for a second before finally caving.

"Fine." He stalked up the row, grabbing Peter and shoving him into a seat before sitting down next to him. He narrowed his eyes at Peter. "But you are staying right next to me the entire time. Got that?"

"Okay!" Peter agreed quickly. He may have gotten what he wanted for now, but there was no guarantee that Alex wouldn't change his mind. It was probably in his best interest not to aggravate the teen spy anymore than he already was.

Alex nodded, apparently satisfied. He grabbed his phone out of Peter's hands and began to tap at it furiously, completely ignoring Peter. Peter shot a Ned a helpless look. They had been planning on sitting next to each other on the bus so they could quiz each other some more. Apparently that wasn't going to happen now.

Ned just shrugged, looking equally helpless. Michelle rolled her eyes and pushed Ned into the seat in front of Alex and Peter. She grabbed Ned's flashcards and turned in her seat so she was facing Peter. She held up the cards and raised an eyebrow.

"Ready to keep studying?"

Peter gave Alex a quick look. He was already beginning to feel uneasy about this whole thing. Checking Alex's reaction to things was probably the safest way to proceed.

Alex ignored Peter's stare for three seconds before sighing, exasperated.

"You don't need my permission to study Peter," he muttered, never looking up from his phone. Peter blushed, quickly turning back to Michelle.

"Uh, yeah, I'd love to!"

Michelle smirked, tossing the cards back to Ned.

"Cool. You two knock yourselves out. I'll watch."

Peter felt the tension in the bus break, and he burst into laughter as Ned sputtered. Maybe this trip could still be fun, even with Alex acting so strange.

His Spidey Sense twinged as Alex frowned at his phone. Peter swallowed, his throat suddenly dry.

Or maybe not.

* * *

Alex resisted the urge to smash his phone into the window. None of his contacts were being of any use. That made sense, considering he had been out of the game for a while, but still. You'd think at least one of them still worked.

He considered calling the Avengers, but ditched that idea immediately. The fact that they hadn't turned up to drag him home by now was proof that their hands were tied at the moment. The fact that Clint was even able to get that message out was probably a miracle. He was on his own.

Alex wasn't sure what was going to happen now that the Sokovia Accords were officially, but he had a few ideas. One was that nothing would happen, but that was such a slim possibility that there wasn't much point in considering it. Another option was that some group would try to abduct either him, Peter, or both of them. This was a bit more likely. Someone had already tried that on Peter, so it wouldn't be very strange if someone tried again.

Still, Alex couldn't help but feel skeptical of that option. Sure, someone may try to kidnap them, but not at the state Academic Decathlon tournament. That was too high profile. Whoever took them would want their disappearances to go as unnoticed as possible. Which honestly knocked out a bunch of his other hypothetical plans as well. In theory, they should be perfectly safe at the competition itself. Most organizations would wait for a more private setting before making a move.

Of course, most was not all. There was one course of action that could take advantage of a public locale, and Alex was almost positive that someone would implement it. Of course, that plan was also the one he was dreading the most. It was risky, riskier than something even Alex would try. If things went wrong, there was a large potential for civilian casualties..

He scowled to himself. He'd like to think that the risk would keep it from happening, but he knew better. There were a lot of people vying for control of both him and Peter. One of them would be desperate enough to risk it. Not that intelligence sorts have ever been too bothered about collateral damage in the first place. Still, that meant that it was up to him to make sure that as few people as possible got hurt in the oncoming storm.

Which would be a lot easier if one his contacts would bloody respond to him.

Alex chewed on the inside of his cheek, glancing out the window. Was he making the right decision by going to the competition? Maybe he should have ignored Peter and dragged him off the bus. Of course, that would have left the two of them alone and vulnerable, and he might have ended up leading Peter right into a trap. But, they could defend themselves easier if there were no witnesses. And everyone else would probably be safer if they weren't there. Although, if the plan he was worried about really was in the works, than it would probably happen whether he and Peter were there or not. At least if they were there, they could try and protect people. But that depended on what exactly happened and whether or not they could act fast enough. Or maybe their absence would stop any hypothetical plan from happening, or maybe the entire thing was moot and nothing would happen today except for a scholarly competition, or maybe-

Alex's phone vibrated. His gaze snapped away from the window and back onto the screen. He grinned. One of his contacts had finally gotten back to him. He began to write out a list of supplies and a time and location, not that anyone else would recognise it as such. Moments after he had sent the text, he received a confirmation.

Alex lowered his phone, relaxing slightly for the first time since he had received the message from Clint. He did a quick sweep of the bus, making sure that nothing was amiss. Peter and Ned were still studying while Michelle watched. Everyone else was doing similar things, most of them studying or chatting. Alex closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

There was nothing more he could do now. Whether or not this was the right choice, he was committed. All he could do was prepare for the worst and assume it was coming.

He opened his eyes, his expression hard.

One thing was for certain. He was not going down without a fight.

* * *

**AN: Huzza! The Sokovia Accords went through! Betcha didn't see that coming! Or maybe you did, I dunno. I didn't even know this was going to happen until I started writing this chapter, so if you figured it out, congrats on your ability to see the future.**

**Next time: action! For the first time this story! Yay!**

**(not yay. action scenes are so hard to write. :( but! I will do my best!)**

**Anyway, I have a pretty clear view of where the next couple of chapters are going to go, so hopefully I'll update quicker? Please? Maybe?**

**Bye for now guys!**


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Hey guys. I know it's been a while. It's just, my mom died unexpectedly in November, and I've been having a hard time writing since then. Still, I managed to get this chapter out, so there's that. I'm not going to abandon this story, but updates may be a bit slower. Sorry. **

**I don't have it in me to be cute or clever today. So. Uh. I don't own anything. **

* * *

Peter suppressed a groan as his Spidey Sense flared again. He had panicked the first time, but he had quickly realised that it was just Alex. The teen spy was on hyper alert and pretty much every little thing sent him into 'attack mode,' which in turn caused Peter's Spidey Sense to flare up, which caused Peter to have yet another miniature heart attack. It was ridiculous! They were still on the bus, there was no need for Alex to be so… Alex. This was one of the few times that Peter wished his instincts were a little less astute. It had a tendency to make being friends with Alex... difficult.

Still, at least they had finally arrived. Maybe Alex would calm down a bit once they were off the cramped, enclosed interior of the bus.

Visions of loud crowds, large open spaces with lots of windows, and lackluster security filled Peter's mind. He winced. Okay, so maybe not.

Peter tried to stand as the bus stopped, but Alex yanked him back down. Peter whined slightly, but didn't argue, letting everyone else get off the bus first. Peter and Alex were the last ones, trailing behind the main group slightly. Peter tried to catch up with Ned, but was once again thwarted by Alex yanking him in a different direction, toward the side of the convention center.

"Alex!" Peter whisper-yelled. "What are you doing? We need to stick with the group!"

"This won't take long," Alex muttered, his eyes flicking everywhere. The two boys walked quickly, rounding the corner of the convention center. Peter was slightly confused when he saw a collection of dumpsters. That confusion only increased when Alex flipped open the lid to one and started rummaging around inside.

Peter stared at his friend blankly. Why was this his life? Why couldn't he just go to a school competition without anything weird happening?

"Stop complaining." Alex said shortly, causing Peter to blush. Oops. Apparently he had said out loud.

Peter's embarrassment faded as Alex pulled a backpack out of the dumpster. It looked perfectly fine, not brand new, but still servacable. Most importantly, it looked full.

Alex unzipped the backpack a little, glancing inside. Upon seeing the contents, he grinned. Alex's smile filled Peter with a level of foreboding he had never felt before. It wasn't even his Spidey Sense causing the feeling, though it was mixed in there. Alex simply looked dangerous when he smiled like that.

Alex zipped the bag back up and slipped it over his shoulder. He started walking toward the entrance, gesturing for Peter to follow. It took Peter a second to shake off the feeling and comply.

"Hey Alex…" he said uneasily. "What's in the bag?"

"Supplies." Alex, unsurprisingly, did not elaborate.

Peter nodded slowly. "Supplies… for the competition?"

"Yes."

Peter held back a groan of frustration. There it was, the classic Alex evasion. He still couldn't tell if Alex was doing it on purpose or not. It was probably a mixture of both, honestly. Still, he couldn't just give up. Alex was his friend. Surely he would explain what was going on.

"Okay. Supplies for the competition. Good. And why were they in the dumpster?"

"Convenience."

Peter visibly facepalmed.

"Fine! Whatever! Let's just go. I'm sure the others are wondering where we are."

Alex never even looked at Peter during the whole conversation, his eyes still flickering around rapidly. Peter really wished that Alex would just tell him what was going on, but Alex had a tendency to keep critical information to himself unless absolutely necessary. If he hadn't already told Peter by this point, then he wasn't going to.

The two teens managed to slip into the convention center without any problems. No one had even realized they were missing. Apparently Michelle had caused some sort of commotion in the entrance hall that had delayed the group long enough for Peter and Alex to catch up without their absence ever being noticed. Peter was just thanking his lucky stars when Michelle winked at him. Peter blushed. Okay, so maybe _someone_ had noticed their disappearance.

Michelle sidled up to Peter as the group made their way to the opening ceremony.

"So…" she drawled, "What were you and Alex up to?"

Peter sighed, rubbing his forehead with one hand.

"I honestly don't even know," he said, exasperated. "Alex won't tell me anything."

"This isn't the place." Alex said quietly, startling both of them. It hadn't looked like he was paying them any attention, though considering the fact it was Alex, he wasn't sure why he was surprised.

Michelle rallied quickly, raising an eyebrow.

"Really? And what could be so important that it could not be entrusted to the hallowed halls of this convention center?"

Peter snorted, but Alex didn't even look at Michelle, let alone deem her question worthy of an answer. He seemed focussed in on some random man; staring at him with an insane level of intensity.

Alex suddenly swore, grabbing Peter and yanking him away from the group yet again.

"Michelle, get out of here," he said curtly over his shoulder. Michelle opened her mouth, eyes wide, but she was swallowed up by the crowd before she could say anything.

"Alex!" Nothing. Peter didn't know why he even tried anymore. He struggled to find his team in the swarm of people, but found that he couldn't. He sighed mentally, resigning himself to going along with whatever Alex was up to this time.

Alex dragged Peter into a fairly empty hallway. After a quick look to make sure they were more or less alone, he dropped Peter's arm and started digging into his backpack.

"I'd hoped that I was overreacting." Aex said quietly, putting something that Peter couldn't see clearly into his pocket. "That nothing would happen. But I was right."

He looked up, finally looking Peter in the eye.

"There are terrorists in the building." He said, his expression completely neutral. "And they are after us."

Peter felt his blood run cold.

"What?" He whispered frantically, "How do you know?"

"I recognize them." Alex muttered, grabbing something else from bag. Peter's heart dropped as he realized it was a gun.

"You recognize them. Right, of course, why didn't that occur to me." Peter fought the urge to bang his head against the wall. He frowned as something occurred to him.

"Wait, but you already knew something was going to happen. Back when we first got on the bus."

Alex held a knife up, apparently examining it before he slipped it up his sleeve.

"I told you, I was hoping I was wrong. I didn't know for sure."

"But-" Peter cut himself off. This was not the time to interrogate Alex. He took a deep breath. "Alright. What do we do?"

Alex concealed the last of the weapons on his person before turning to Peter.

"Good question. Difficult to answer."

Alex crossed his arms, looking conflicted.

"First things first, we protect civilians. That is our main priority."

Alex paused, chewing on his lower lip, before sighing.

"The truth is, we aren't going to win this fight. No matter what we do, it isn't going to end well for us. We just need to make sure that as few people as possible are hurt in the crossfire."

Peter frowned. "Alex, what are you talking-"

He was cut off by the sound of gunshots, followed by screaming. He spun toward the sound, eyes wide.

"That's our cue," Alex said grimmly, pushing past Peter. Peter stared at him for a second before rushing to follow.

_Protect civilians, huh? I can do that._

* * *

Alex fought the urge to swear again as he entered the main convention hall. It was hard to see through the throng of panicking people, but he could make out men with guns in the center of the room, holding a group of people hostage. Alex's stomach twisted as he spotted lifeless bodies on the ground. He scowled. Whoever had come up with this insane scheme was going to pay.

He heard Peter suck in a sharp breath, clearly noticing the bodies. He avoided looking at his friend, not wanting to see how he was reacting. There wasn't time to comfort him, and even if there was, Alex was not the most qualified person to do it. Right now, he needed to focus on keeping as many people as possible alive.

Alex slipped through the crowd with ease, coming to a stop next to a display case. He crouched behind it, slipping a knife out of his sleeve and gripping it tightly. He leaned around the edge cautiously, taking in the situation. What he saw caused him to tense up, his grip on his knife becoming so tight it was painful.

Peter crept up next to him. He started to peer around the display case, but Alex stopped him, shaking his head slightly. Peter frowned, but pulled back.

"There are twelve terrorists in the main group," Alex whispered, his voice barely audible in the chaos. "But there are probably more dispersed throughout the crowd."

Alex closed his eyes, thinking. The crowd was beginning to thin out, but there were still plenty of potential hostages in the building. They needed to get as many people as possible out of the building, but odds were the terrorists had men stationed at the exits, keeping people penned in. If that were the case…

Alex's eyes flew open.

"Okay. I'll distract the main group while you get people out of the building."

"What?" Peter whispered harshly. "No! I can't leave you alone to deal with these people. They'll kill you!"

Alex rolled his eyes. "No they won't. Trust me, these people are not going to be the ones to finally take me out. Unfortunately, we have hundreds of innocent people in here who aren't so lucky. If these terrorists have any sense of strategy, they'll be blocking the exits. Someone needs to take them down."

Peter opened his mouth, presumably to argue, when a distant gunshot echoed through the room. Peter tensed, turning toward the sound with wide eyes.

"Go." Alex hissed urgently. When Peter hesitated, Alex grabbed his arm, looking him straight in the eyes.

"Trust me."

Peter stared for a second before nodding. Alex let go of his arm and Peter slipped away, blending into the dwindling crowd.

Alex let out a breath, trying to relax. This was a bad situation, but panicking wouldn't help. He needed to stay calm.

He carefully looked around the display case again. His gut twisted as he confirmed what he had seen in that brief moment. He swallowed, his throat dry.

There was a reason he had sent Peter away. It was true that someone needed to clear the exits, but that wasn't the main reason.

Alex just didn't want to see the look on Peter's face when he realized that their classmates were in the group who had been taken hostage.

* * *

Michelle hugged her knees, trying desperately to stay calm. Ned wasn't doing so well, his face wet with tears. At least he was quiet, though it took him biting down on his hand to accomplish that. The rest of the team were in similar amounts of distress. Understandable, considering there were men with guns standing over them.

Mr. Harrington was hunched over Abe, pressing his jacket onto the wound in Abe's leg. The teen's face was scrunched up in pain, his breathing unsteady as he held onto Liz's hand. No one else from their school was injured luckily, but that didn't mean that Abe was the only causality. Michelle could see at least three other people who were bleeding. And that wasn't counting the ones who were…

_No._

Michelle wrenched her mind away from dangerous territory. If she allowed herself to think about it, she wouldn't be able to remain calm.

The men _(murders, her mind whispered) _were arguing in some foreign language. Michelle desperately wished she could understand what they were saying. She would be able to make better decisions if she were well informed. At least, that's what she told herself. In truth, she was just afraid they were arguing over who to hurt (_kill, her mind insisted, they are going to kill us) _next.

The men seemed to come to a decision, the yelling dying down. One of the men huffed before turning to the terrified crowd.

His gaze swept over the crowd before narrowing in on Mr. Harrington. Michelle's breathing sped up as the man approached her teacher, crouching down next to him.

"Where are your students?" The man asked in surprisingly good English. Mr. Harrington stared at the man with wide eyes.

"They, they're here. They're all right here." Her teacher stammered, clearly confused. The man sighed, shaking his head.

"Not all of them." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture. Michelle carefully shifted, trying to get a good look at it. Her stomach dropped when she realized who was in the picture.

_Peter._ This crazy man with a gun had a picture of Peter. She had barely managed to comprehend that when the man pulled another picture from his pocket, this one showing Alex's school picture.

"These students are missing." The man said, holding up the pictures. "Where are they?"

"They're sick." Michelle blurted before she could think better of it. She struggled to hold her composure as the man turned his attention onto her. She swallowed harshly, but refused to back down.

"Sick?" The man asked, tilting his head slightly as if the concept confused him. Michelle nodded, desperately trying to control the shaking in her body.

"They're good friends, they study together a lot." She said hurriedly, tripping over her words slightly. "We warned them they were working too hard, but I guess they ignored us. They came down with the flu a few days ago. They couldn't come."

"It's true." Michelle was shocked when Ned spoke up. The boy was clearly terrified, but his voice was steady. "Peter has been texting me for days complaining about it. He was really upset he couldn't come."

"That is… unfortunate." The man said slowly. "Afterall, we only came here to retrieve them. If they aren't here, than we have no use for the rest of you."

Michelle's heart stopped as the barrel of the man's gun came up to rest against her forehead. The man smiled.

"Are you sure they couldn't make it?"

Time seemed to stop. Michelle didn't know what to do. Why was this happening? Why did these men even want Peter? With Alex it almost made sense. He was clearly trying to get over some awful thing that had happened in the past, but Peter?

Michelle took a deep breath. She couldn't tell these men that Peter and Alex were here. It didn't matter that she was terrified, she couldn't do it. She had seen what these men were willing to do. They were killers. She could not hand Peter and Alex over to them, not when doing so would put them in mortal danger. She couldn't.

She closed her eyes, bracing herself for death. The tension in her built until-

The sound of breaking glass caused her eyes to open. The gun fell away from her head as the man turned toward the sound. Michelle turned to look as well only to see…

Alex?

The boy had apparently knocked over a display by accident, giving his position away. He froze as he realized that everyone was staring at him. He slowly raised his hands, eyes wide in fear.

The man who had been threatening Michelle laughed, standing up.

"There you are." The man said with a grin. "I must say, you are looking quite good for someone who supposedly has the flu. Why don't you join us?"

Alex hesitated, fear clear in his eyes. He looked around anxiously before slowly walking forward, clearly reluctant. The terrorists grinned at each other, relieved to have found one of their targets.

Michelle was a mix of relief and disappointment. She wasn't dead, but Alex could be very soon, so that wasn't good.

Except… Michelle frowned as she took Alex in. He didn't look like himself. She had never seen him so obviously scared before, and it rubbed her the wrong way. Not to mention the fact that he had so carelessly given his position away. The Alex she knew could move through a crowded cafeteria without ever touching a single person, yet he was so careless as to knock over a large display case? It didn't make sense. Maybe she was overthinking it. This was an extreme situation, of course Alex was acting strangely. Despite that, something nagged at her.

Suddenly it hit her. She had seen Alex afraid before, just today in fact, on the bus. The way he was acting now wasn't the way he had acted then. The look of fear on his face wasn't what Alex looked like when he was actually afraid. It was the look on her face, on Ned's, on all the people held hostage. He looked… too normal. Almost as if he were pretending.

Alex reached the main group just as Michelle reached this conclusion. She stared at Alex with wide eyes as he approached the man who had threatened her.

"Okay. One down, now we just have to find-"

It happened faster than Michelle could blink. One moment the man was turning away from Alex, talking to his comrades. The next he was on the ground, bleeding. Michelle was strangely reminded of the first time she had met Alex and he had punched Flash in the face. Flash had gone down just as quickly, but something told Michelle that this man wouldn't be getting back up again.

The terrorists shouted in surprise, looking around as if they thought the attack had come from outside the group. This hesitation allowed Alex to move, three knives appearing from somewhere on his body and taking down the men that were furthest from him.

_He's protecting the hostages _Michelle thought numbly, the sound of men yelling strangely blurry in her ears. _He positioned himself close to the main group and then took down the ones far away first so they couldn't threaten anyone._

The fight, if you could call it that, didn't last long. The men were completely unprepared for Alex's attack. If they'd managed to grab one of the hostages, it may have gone differently, but the men were all so focussed on defending themselves that they didn't have time. In less than twenty seconds, they were all down. Dead.

Alex stood alone, breathing heavily. He had a bloody knife in each hand. After a second, he bent over, checking the bodies of the terrorists. Most of them got only a brief look, but one caused Alex to pause. He stared at the man for a second before abruptly stabbing one of his knives into his chest. The man gasped, clearly not dead yet. He squirmed under Alex's knife for a second before going limp, this time for good.

Ned made a strange choking sound before losing control of his stomach, throwing up. Michelle couldn't blame him. She kinda wanted to throw up too. Alex didn't look at them, checking each body. Apparently none of the others had held onto life as Alex didn't touch any of them.

He finally turned to the group. Michelle winced at the blood on his face and clothes. His eyes wandered over the group before zeroing in on Abe.

"Let me," He said softly, pulling a backpack from his shoulders. He reached in and pulled out a thing of gauze and some antiseptic. Mr. Harrington looked uncertain, but he backed away, allowing Alex access to Abe.

"This may hurt," Alex said softly before pouring the antiseptic onto his leg. Abe screamed, his entire body jerking, but Alex ignored him, thoroughly cleaning the wound before wrapping it with gauze. He didn't say anything else, simply moving onto the next injured person.

Michelle wasn't sure how much time passed with Alex treating the wounded. She was pretty sure that most of them were in shock. They may have sat there forever if Peter hadn't shown up.

"Alex!" Peter had wide eyes as he ran into the room. "Everyone's out! Looks like you did your job… too… wait…"

Peter slowed as he took in the carnage in the center of the room. Alex hadn't looked up from the person he was treating, but Michelle knew that he was listening.

"You killed them?" Peter whispered, his voice loud in the silence. This broke the spell that had been holding the hostages still. Suddenly people were yelling and crying, many half running, half crawling, as they tried to get away from the bodies and Alex. Alex didn't respond to the chaos, focused on the person he was helping. It wasn't until he was finished that he stood up and faced Peter.

The noise died down as people realized that Alex was going to speak. The teen ignored them all, looking only at Peter.

"The most efficient way to stop someone is to kill them." He said blankly. "You're going to need to learn that sooner or later."

Peter paled, staring at his friend incredulously. Before he could speak, the doors to the room banged open, distracting everyone. Men in body armour stormed the room, quickly surrounding the hostages.

_The police. _Michelle realized after a heart stopping moment. Relief flooded her. Finally things would be okay.

At least, Michelle thought so. But as the officers took control of the situation, Michelle realized that Peter and Alex were gone. She looked around frantically only to spot them being herded away by a group of men in suits. Peter looked scared, but Alex just looked resigned.

She started after them without thinking, stopping only when one of the officers grabbed her. She tried to argue, only to be distracted by Alex. The teen had seen her, and was shaking his head. She stopped arguing, confused. She watched as Alex slowly mouthed something at her.

_I'm sorry._

Then they were gone.

* * *

**AN: There it is. I thought it would be interesting to show Alex in action from the perspective of a normal person, so that last scene was born. I'll explain why this all happened next time. I promise, it does make sense. I put a lot of thought into what would happen, so don't worry. Things will be a lot clearer next time.**

**Again, sorry for the wait. I'm doing my best, but things are kinda hard right now and writing just doesn't make me as happy as it did. I still like it, and I still want to finish this story, but once again, it may be hard for me to find the motivation to do it for a while. No matter what, I won't abandon this story, I promise you that. **

**Bye guys.**


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